Ashes To Shadows
by Cynthia Smit
Summary: The only thing Nara Yoruka wants from her second life is to live a semi-peaceful life. Unfortunately, she was reborn into the Narutoverse, so that's not going to happen. This is not the original story
1. Prologue

My story begins where most would end, my death. I remember much of my life before I died, but the circumstances around my death itself remain a mystery to me. I do remember the sound of pieces of metal crashing together and pain, so much pain. But that life isn't what's important right now, though the memories are. However, I don't realize this for quite some time after my rebirth. About two years to be exact, which is coincidentally where this story picks up.

Waking up in the body of a two year old child after hitting puberty is... strange, but as I've recently been a baby, it's an improvement. I actually have some mobility now! Also I had to learn an entirely new language that that looks and sounds like Japanese, but the language was never actually named. I once asked my new mom what the language was called, and she told me it didn't have one.

The soft creak of the door gives away my mother's approach. "Yoruka, breakfast is ready," she says as she smiles at me. "Also, your father is back from his mission!" She sounds almost... giddy.

Wait, my father? I honestly thought Mom was a single parent until this very moment. Huh. Also, mission? Is he a secret agent or something? But if he were a secret agent, would he really be permitted to tell Mom what he was actually doing? "That's great!" I reply, though it sounds more like a question.

"Yeah," Mom sighs happily, "he's downstairs waiting for us." Her dark brown eyes sparkle with excitement as she exits the room.

I get up and follow Mom out of my bedroom and down the stairs to the dining room where a dark haired man is waiting for us. He doesn't really look like a secret agent, though he does seem fit enough for it. In fact, he just looks... tired. His entire face lights up when he sees us, and he moves forward. I get a good look at his outfit and, what? He has one of those Naruto headbands on his arm. And uh, he's dressed like a character from Naruto too, mesh and everything. Again, what?!

The man sweeps Mom into a tight hug. "Nara Takeshi, if you ever get a deep cover mission right after I give birth again, I will go yell at the Hokage myself!" My mother not so calmly informs my apparent father after she's done hugging him. Next he sweeps me into a hug, and I can vaguely hear him muttering about how he missed his baby girl so much. I don't really notice because I'm fairly sure I went into shock. Nara, HOKAGE, WHAT?! Did I... no that's impossible! I can't have actually been reborn into NARUTO of all universes.

Unfortunately, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense and I want to kick myself for not noticing earlier. Dammit, I didn't even watch the first series. I started at Shipuden. (I thought all three of the main characters were annoying, and the only reason I watched Shipuden was because I heard they got better. They did, and I absolutely adore older Team Seven, but I got through the wave arc and I wanted to strangle them the entire time, so I just stopped.

BUT STILL, THE NARUTO WORLD!?

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows**

**The happy days of Yoruka's childhood. **


	2. Golden Days

So after the absolute disaster of my father coming home and me having the "wow, I was born into a fictional universe" mental breakdown, Mom and Dad explained why Dad was gone for the first two years of my life. Apparently he's some prodigital infiltration specialist, and the Hokage needed him for an extremely important deep cover mission in Kiri. This is also why Mom, even though she's an active duty Jonin, hasn't been sent on any missions. The Hokage felt bad.

We ate next, Dad across from me. "So Yoruka," Dad clears his throat, "would you like to go to the park?" I nod once, "sure." I would actually rather staying home, but he's trying. Mom, who I'm starting to think is the only one in this family who's not socially awkward, beams and claps her hands together "Great! I'll make you two lunches and see about getting myself a Genin team. I've always wanted to torment some Genin..." Wow, Mom is actually pretty scary.

During this conversation, I realized neither of my parents really acted like the Naras portrayed in the Anime and Manga. In fact, Dad doesn't even look like one! Hell, he has dark blue eyes, pale skin, and I'm 99.9 percent sure his "dark" hair is dyed, as the blond roots are showing. Mom, however, has the stereotypical Nara looks, but she's actually fairly energetic. She actually wants to teach Genin.

The park is... nice. But to be fair, I've been sitting on the same swing for at least an hour much to my dad's bemusement. I think he was expecting me to make friends or something equally as ridiculous. If I'm going to be at the park, I'm going to be doing the least energy consuming activity here. And uh, I don't know how to make friends with children. So there's that.

The crunch of the mulch beneath feet heralded the arrival of a group of older kids. Around eight or nine if I had to guess. Probably civilians, considering they're academy age and not in the academy. "Hey look, Tamaki. A baby is on our swing!" Ah, great. I'm about to get into a fight with a bunch of actual children.

I ignore them up until they try to push me off the swing. The smart, logical thing for me to do would be to just get off the swing. However, I'm mentally a teenager, and I'm not about to let children push me around. So I do the not so smart thing, and mouthed off.

"How cowardly does someone have to be, to assault a child younger than them for just minding their business?" I asked as I turned on the swing to face them. "I mean I'd totally get it, if I'd actually done something to one of you, but I haven't. So, I think getting pushed just because I'm using a public swing is a little uncalled for." A smile grew across my face as I looked at the older kids. "Also, there are other swings open, so I think you all are just trying to push around a younger kid on the principle of it. And honestly, that's a bit juvenile." Ha, get lectured on maturity by a two year old!

They sputtered for a moment, before the one who spoke turned red and replied, "Oh yeah, well you're just a baby," before he turned and walked away. I've learned through experience that most people like that are all bark and no bite, so all you really have to do is beat them verbally. Of course, there are always exceptions.

Over the course of a year, Mom started getting sent to the front lines again and Dad had to take more and more infiltration missions. Apparently, I was born during the Third Shinobi War. I ended up staying with my mom's first cousin Nara Shikaku, the clan head, when they were gone at the same time. Dad wasn't actually born a Nara. He was civilian born and married in. I advanced from reading to writing, and I learned that I was left handed like I was in my first life. Thankfully both my parents managed to make it home for my third birthday.

My third birthday party was a small affair, because I'm socially awkward and I have made exactly zero friends. Uncle Shikaku came as well my mom's Genin team, Yamanaka Kyoya, Moriama Satoshi, and Hyuga Aiko. They've babysat on multiple occasions. My third birthday party was also when I realized I had no desire to join the chaotic life of a shinobi. Of course, this was before everything went to hell.

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**The Next time in Ashes to Shadows **

**The consequences of the Third Shinobi War**


	3. When it Rains, it Pours

If I thought the war was bad before my third birthday, it got even worse after it. My parents, in a fit of sentimentality (and when they were both home, again), decided we should get a family picture done. "But, why?" I asked Mom as she bundled me up into a pale green yukata and pulled my light brown hair into a high ponytail.

"Well, Yoruka, dear, your father and I are going to get pulled away on even more missions because the war is picking up. So, both of us want a little something to carry with us." She replied.  
For the picture, both of my parents are wearing dark green yukatas, and my dad has his shoulder length, pale blond hair pulled up into a half-up. Mom left her long chocolate brown hair down, and her equally dark eyes sparkle with mischief. I sigh, they look so happy. I'm actually going to cooperate for this picture aren't I?

The photographer positioned my parents side by side and me in front of them. Dad had one of his endearingly awkward half smiles on, Mom, an actual goddess, was the only one who fully smiled, my smile was more of an uptilt of my lips. My parents laughed when they saw the final product, and we each got a copy.

Mom had to go back to running missions soon after, while Dad stayed home with me. He didn't get to stay for long, but while he was home I learned he had the lynx summoning contract. He learned that I will do anything to pet any type of cat. His main summons, Arashi, puts up with my fawning with an amused, superior air. I firmly believe Arashi is in all actuality, an unrepentant asshole. He's one of those cats who will look you dead in the eyes and push glass vases off tables. I love him so much.

I worry about Dad on his missions. He comes home more exhausted after every one. He tells me I shouldn't because he knows what he's doing, but I can't help it.

Dad also wants me to sign the lynx summons contract, but I have no desire to become a shinobi. And if I sign the contract, I'll have to become a shinobi. As much as I love Arashi, I'm not going to sign the contract. I told him as much.

"Not wanting to be a shinobi is perfectly acceptable, Yoruka. Don't let anyone tell you differently," he tells me.

And then Mom comes back. But she's not the same as when she left. She still smiles and laughs, but there's a sadness there that wasn't before. Yamanaka Kyoya stops babysitting me, and the rest of Mom's team is distant and sad.

Mom and her team have been running in-village missions lately, so I get to see all three of them more often. Mom said they won't be going out of village until the Hokage assigns them a new teammate. Dad has also been running shorter missions lately, so I get to see my entire family more often.

Uncle Shikaku shows up from time to time to destroy Mom in shogi under the excuse of teaching me how to play. "No self-respecting Nara doesn't know how to play shogi," he tells me. I'm surprisingly good at the game, though I was very good at chess in my past life. Mom and Uncle Shikaku still destroy me in the game, but I can consistently beat Dad.

"My talents are more suited to espionage, than strategy, Yoruka," he laughs after the first time I beat him.

Mom eventually gets a new Genin, though she never introduces us, so she gets sent out to the war front again. Dad leaves a few days after; he tells me he won't be home for a while and takes me to Uncle Shikaku's.

Aunt Yoshino teaches me to cook, to keep me from worrying too much. I don't see Uncle Shikaku much because he's busy as Jonin commander, but we play shogi when he is home. He likes to tell me he's training me to become the next Jonin commander, I don't tell him I don't want to be a shinobi.

Neither of my parents are home for my fourth birthday, but Uncle Shikaku takes me to an Akimichi restaurant and introduces me to Akimichi Chouza. I also get a stuffed lynx, which amuses me.

Mom comes home a few days later. "I'm so sorry about missing your birthday, dear." She smiles at me. "I got you something though," she says as she gives me a sketchbook and some very nice graphite pencils.

"Mom... these are..." I breathe out. In this world Kumo has a stranglehold on the graphite market.  
"I know sweetheart, I know. I actually ran into a merchant selling these in one of the border villages." She didn't say in which country though, she could of been in the land of lightning.

Dad's been gone for too long. He didn't tell me when he was supposed to get home, but Mom is getting anxious. Mom never gets anxious around me. Everything builds to a breaking point when an ANBU knocks on our door.

The ANBU wears a dog mask, and asks to see Nara Kuroko. Huh, that's my mom's name. I get my mom, the ANBU hands her a scroll and shunshins away. Mom's hands shake and she falls to her knees. "No..." she whispers.

"Mom?"

She breaks down into tears, and I start. This is the first time I've seen her cry. "Yoruka," her voice breaks, "your father is..." she can't finish the sentence.

No. Nononono. Tears fall down my face and all I can hear is "Not wanting to be a shinobi is perfectly acceptable, Yoruka." But it's not. Not for me. Dad gave up his life for this village. I know what's going to happen in the future. The village gets destroyed.

No. That's not the reason. I want revenge. Some foreign shinobi took my father from me. I fall to my knees. Mom hugs me. But I'm numb to everything besides the tears falling down my face.

The funeral is a week later. Mom has her mask up again. I'm numb. People keep giving us condolences, and I just want them to shut up.

"Not wanting to be a shinobi is perfectly acceptable, Yoruka." It's not. Nothing's ok. Mom's smile doesn't reach her eyes, the only thing I can feel is anger, Dad's dead.

"Mom," I whisper, "I want to sign Dad's contract."  
She sucks in a breath.

"You don't have to, Yoruka." Of course Mom knows what I'm truly saying. She's the one who taught me doublespeak.

"I know."

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows **

**Yoruka gets some much needed help. **


	4. Gray clouds with Silver Lining

After the funeral, I do sign the contract, Arashi decides to be my primary summon as well, Mom's Genin make Chunin, and Mom starts me on training. Mom's smiles never reach her eyes, and I don't sleep.

It turns out that there is a very good reason Mom is such a feared Jonin. She is very proficient at Shadow Release- Evil Shadow Spirit Summoning. She also uses Shadow Release- Shadow Blade quite often. Of course, the first technique I have to master is the Shadow Imitation Technique. Unfortunately chakra control doesn't come easy to me, so I foresee a lot of meditation and chakra control exercises in my future.

There's also the Nara Taijutsu style. Mom started me on katas, then promptly decided my endurance needed work. Yay, running laps. The fun thing about the Nara Taijutsu style is that it's incredibly strategic in its use. The blocks aren't so much of blocks, as they are redirecting the opponent's momentum.

The only thing that comes easily to me when it comes to the shinobi arts Mom is teaching me is throwing kunai. I may be intellectually a genius, but I'm sure not a genius in anything else. Luckily, my aim was always good and that carried over. Also, most people in this world are right handed, so hardly anyone is going to expect a small child to throw a knife at their head with their left hand. It's glorious.

I jerk awake, gasping for air. For a moment, I don't remember where I am, then I realize Mom is gone again, and I'm in my room at Uncle Shikaku's house. I get up and walk into the bathroom. I splash cold water in my face and look up into the mirror. Tired, dark brown eyes framed with dark circles look back out at me.

I sigh, go back into my room and flop onto my bed. It's been like this since Dad died, waking up from nightmares every single night. Sometimes I'm watching him die, a new, horrible death each time, and if I'm particularly unlucky, I'm the one actually killing him. Tonight had been one of the unlucky nights, and there's no way I'm getting back to sleep.

I sigh again, roll over grab my sketchbook and pencils, and walk out of the room. I leave the house, grass crunching under my bare feet, and sit down. The early morning or late night dew soaks into my pajama bottoms. The deer are out and about, and I take out my pencils to start sketching.

It feels like hours (It's not), before I hear grass crunching under another human's feet. "What are you doing out here, Yoruka?" Oh, so it's Uncle Shikaku.

"Not sleeping, obviously." I continue to draw.

He huffs out a laugh, "And why aren't you sleeping?"

"Can't." I don't elaborate, but he gets it anyway.

"Does your mother know about this?" He drags his hands through his hair.

"No." He looks like he wants me to say more, but I don't.

Uncle Shikaku sighs in exasperation, "And why doesn't she?"

"She has enough to worry about without me adding to that," I answer and go back to drawing the deer. I mean for that to be the end of the conversation, but Uncle Shikaku doesn't.

Another sigh, "Yoruka, Yoruka look at me," he doesn't continue until I meet his eyes. "Not sleeping is incredibly unhealthy, especially for us. Nara's use more of their brain than most people, so we require more sleep. Tomorrow, I'm going to take you to my old teammate. He's a Yamanaka, he can help with this."

I exhale, I want to be upset about my uncle basically taking me to therapy, but I'm really... not. I am incredibly tired, so I should just let Uncle Shikaku's teammate, who is probably Yamanaka Inoichi, help me. "Ok," I whisper.

Uncle Shikaku looked surprised, as if he wasn't expecting me to agree that easily. "Alright, I'm assuming you won't go back to sleep, so I'll leave you to your art until it's time to go."

I go to someone who is most definitely Yamanaka Inoichi's house in pajamas because I'm four and I want to take advantage of being able to go everywhere in pajamas while I can. Uncle Shikaku explains the situation while I rest my eyes.

"Well, Yoruka, I'm Inoichi, do you mind if I take a look at your psyche? I'll just be doing a mind walk to look at your nightmares, and I won't touch anything else," Inoichi says.

"Yeah, that's fine," I sigh exhaustedly.

"Great, we'll go ahead and get started!" How is this man so cheerful?

Inoichi makes a handsign, then I'm in the dream from last night. I'm running through the forest at shinobi speeds, and soon I'm in a clearing, my father in front of me. "Yoruka, dear, what are you doing out here?" He asks me. He looks so confused, and then betrayed when I move forward to drive my kunai through is heart. Then there's blood on my hands, on my face, and I'm screaming. My dad is laying on the ground in front of me bleeding out. Then his eyes open, only they're red, not blue. And he speaks, "This is your fault, Yoruka. If I hadn't been so worried about getting home to you, I would still be alive! You killed me!" He snarls. Only it's not his voice, it's some disjointed mockery of his voice. And I'm crying again, I'm always crying.

I gasp as my eyes fly open, remnicient to this morning. Inoichi looks troubled. "It seems as if you're blaming yourself for your father's death. I know it won't help hearing this from me, but it's most certainly not your fault."

"I know it's not, it's just... subconscious, I guess." I squeeze my hands together.

"I think you need to talk to your mother about this, Yoruka. But in the meantime, I'll prescribe you with some sleeping pills, I am a certified psychiatrist after all!" He cracks a small smile at the last part. "Shikaku, if you'll bring her back next week, we can talk again, see if I can help her mental state as well." Uncle Shikaku nods to Inoichi.

"We're not training today, kid. You need to sleep," Shikaku states. And that's that.

Talking with Inoichi helps, as do the sleeping pills. Now that I'm actually sleeping, my Taijutsu has improved greatly, and Uncle Shikaku started me on a stretching routine to build flexibility. It's basically ninja yoga. I'm going to be creepily flexible when I'm an adult, and it's going to be great. Also, it's a huge power move to back bend out of an attack.

Mom comes home. She's more tired than she usually is. I guess she's trying to cope by working herself into the ground. "Hey, Mom, we need to talk." I fidget nervously.

Mom frowns, "Yoruka? What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"I... I haven't been sleeping well. Nightmares," I look at my feet, "and I didn't want to worry you, so I've been dealing with it. Uncle Shikaku took me to Inoichi, and he says I need to talk to you about it-"

"Yoruka," Mom interrupts, "I'm your mom, I'm always worrying about you. Now, how about you tell me what these nightmares are about."

I take a deep breath, "I'm either watching Dad die or killing him myself, and then Dad's corpse wakes up and blames me. Inoichi says I'm subconsciously blaming myself for his death."

Mom considers me for a while, then inhales, "Sweetheart, it's not your fault, and your father... Takeshi would never want you to blame yourself for his death."

"I know," I sob, "but I can't help but to think that if hadn't been close to my birthday, he wouldn't have died. He wanted to make it back for it, so", I gasp for breath, "so, he might have been unfocused, and that can get you killed."

Oh, I'm crying again, I distantly realize. Mom hugs me to her chest. "Oh, sweetheart," she whispers, "Your father was killed infiltrating Kirigakure, but it wasn't because he was unfocused. Kumo has the same idea as us, and they sent an infiltrator too. You see, no information has been getting in or out of Kiri since the third Mizukage took the hat. The Kumo nin got caught, so the Kiri nin were all on high alert and caught your father. The only reason we know anything about what happened in Kiri, was because your father managed to get Arashi the information, and Arashi managed to use his own chakra to keep him grounded in our world long enough to get a message to the Hokage."

I'm crying harder now, "So you see, it's not your fault. Your dad is a hero," Mom tells me, though the last sentiment sounds hollow.

We stay like that for a while. I think we both needed to cry and hug after everything that has happened. I start to go back through her explanation, Kiri is responsible. I'm probably going to need to be ANBU to fight Kiri nin, then.

"What's this?" I stare uncomprehendingly at Arashi and the lynx cub in his mouth.

Arashi sets down the cub, "This is Rai, and the queen said you need to train a secondary summon, because apparently I'm getting old!" He spits out.

I snicker, Rai flat out laughs, and Arashi turns up his nose at both of us. I can already tell we're going to get on wonderfully.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows **

**Yoruka learns the meaning behind the phrase "The calm before the storm." **


	5. The Approaching Storm

Three months before I turn five, I'm registered for the Academy. With the war cooling down, Mom decides that it's better to be one of the youngest in my class and still have material to learn than be one of the oldest and be bored out of my mind. Of course, I have a high school education, so there's not much to learn besides world specifics, but Mom doesn't know that.

"Time to wake up, sweetheart!" Mom says as she pulls the curtains back, flooding my room with sunlight.

I groan, flop over onto my face and reply, "Time is a meaningless social construct used to control the masses." I'm honestly not sure how Mom heard me because that went straight into my pillow, but she did. And then she laughed at me!

"You're always so philosophical in the morning, Yoru," Rai yawns. Rai might look fluffy, and cute, and adorable, but looks are deceptive. Her tongue is just as sharp as Arashi's. And Arashi is an unrepentant asshole.

Mom sighed theatrically, pulled my covers off of me, and left my room with a parting "Get ready, Yoruka." Since Mom and I discussed my nightmares, both of us have healed some. I only have the occasional nightmares, and Mom's smiles reach her eyes more often. Mom has also recovered some of her old cheer. I'm... happy.

I groan again, roll out of bed, and shoot Rai a glare as she laughs at me. Sadistic cat, laughing at other people's pain. I pull on a pair of shorts, because even though it's winter, it's not cold enough for pants, a black t-shirt, and throw on a baggy green hoodie, so Rai can hitch a ride if she's having trouble keeping up.

Then I pull up my hair into a ponytail, brush my teeth, and walk downstairs for breakfast. Rai following me down.

Mom walks me to school. Rai, the lucky cat, is asleep in my hood. The Academy's courtyard is full of children and their parents. Mom goes to receive my information packet.

Someone behind me shouts "Haimaru, stop!" Wait, Haimaru? I turn around to be greeted with the sight of three puppies running at me. I feel Rai tense up and hiss, and next thing I know she's climbing me like a tree and sitting on my head.

The puppies scramble around at my feet, trying to get to Rai, as I stare at them bemusedly. This situation is so surreal. "Haimaru, leave her alone!" A girl shouts.

The puppies whine, then go to the girl who called them. "Sorry about them, it's just you have a cat, and they're still puppies," she says as she walks up to me.

I hear Rai mutter lynx under her breath, as I go to answer. "Oh, it's fine. I don't mind dogs, and besides they're pretty cute!" I reply, ignoring Rai's howl of "betrayal."

The girl raises her eyebrow at Rai, as all three Haimarus wag their tails at me. I snort, "Oh don't mind Rai, she's a tad overdramatic."

"Overdramatic?! I could have been licked!" Rai hisses. I snicker.

"Anyways," the girl says, "I'm Inuzuka Hana, and these are the Haimaru brothers." She gestures at the dogs.

"I'm Nara Yoruka, and this is my summon, Rai," I introduce as Rai swings her short, bobbed tail in front of my face in retribution.

"Yoruka, you're in class 1-A!" Mom approaches us.

Hana grins, "Really? So am I! Let's go!" Hana grabs my arm and drags me along.

I wave goodbye to my mom as Hana pulls me toward the building. She waves back and covers her mouth with her hand. Great. She's laughing at me.

Hana tugs me me into a room that's about half full of children, then towards a desk in the back corner of the room already sitting a small, dark haired boy with chubby cheeks. "Hey, Itachi! I found us a desk mate, and look, she has a cat!" Hana yells.

I give a small wave, "Nara Yoruka, and this is my summon, Rai," I introduce.

He waves back and says, "Uchiha Itachi." Rai jumps off my head and onto the desk, sniffs him, and promptly declares that she likes him.

Itachi, huh? There's no way I'm letting this adorable child grow up to murder his entire family. It's not happening. I'm going to save him through the power of friendship. Also cats. He's already petting Rai. He has to like cats.

Mom leaves a month later. She says that they're attacking Iwagakure directly. I can't help but feel the rush of excitement, because I remember this. Iwagakure is where Namikaze Minato distinguishes himself and ends the war. The Third Shinobi War is almost over!

Itachi invites Hana and I over for dinner after school. As we walk over to his house together talking about school and hobbies (Hana likes to help out in the Inuzuka clinic and "No Itachi, training doesn't count.") Hana and I resolved to find Itachi something to do besides training after that conversation.

When we reach the gates, the guards let us in with small smiles. Walking through the Uchiha Compound is an experience. It's basically a village inside a village. The Nara Compound is just houses and forests.

We meet Uchiha Mikoto and she basically extends an invitation to come over whenever we want to bother Itachi outside of school. Fugaku doesn't really look happy about this, but alas Mikoto is a literal goddess and one should never argue with her.

My fifth birthday happens with no word from Mom. Hana and Itachi decide to celebrate it anyway and take me to a little café on the outskirts of the Uchiha District. There I try dango for the first time at Itachi's instistance. From that moment on, Itachi and I teamed up against Hana, our heathen friend who doesn't like sweet things, whenever the frequent argument about different foods happens.

Hana gets me a stuffed dog as a gag gift (She's also outnumbered there, Itachi and I are both cat people much to her irritation.) I receive a set of charcoals from Itachi.

Despite the fact that Mom is still away, my fifth birthday is nice. Having friends is nice.

When the Shinobi from the warfront come home, Mom is not with them. I was already half expecting it, when a Jonin handed an identical scroll to the one Mom received when dad died to Uncle Shikaku. That didn't make it easier.

I couldn't move, even when Uncle Shikaku drew me into a hug, I was numb. Mom was dead. Something is shaking, no not something. Me. I'm trembling. And there's water falling down my face, I realize distantly. Tears.

Uncle Shikaku is saying something, but I can't hear anything other than the roaring in my own head. Mom's dead, Dad's dead, and I'm alone. A wretched sob tears it's way out of my throat, and I'm on my knees clinging to Uncle Shikaku.

At the end of the day, Konoha won the war, but I lost my family.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows **

**Yoruka deals with her mother's death in a somewhat healthy manner and learns all teenagers, even psychotic ones, are predictable.**


	6. Building Back Up

I didn't leave my bed for almost a week, Arashi and Rai stayed with me. Hana and Itachi stopped by everyday, but I remained unresponsive. The only times I would eat would be when Aunt Yoshino or Uncle Shikaku brought me food and glared at me until I forced some food down.

This changed when Uncle Shikaku brought Inoichi over. He eyed me, in all of my pale skin, bloodshot eyes, and tangled hair glory, and said "Is this really what your parents would want? You so torn up over their deaths that you can't even take care of yourself?"

"How would you know?" I hissed, "They're dead!"

He sighs, "Listen, Yoruka, your parents loved you very much, and I don't think any parent who loved their kid like yours loved you would want this for them. And besides," he hands me a picture, "as long as you remember them a little piece of them will live on with you." It's the family picture.

Arashi huffs and bats at me with his paw, "He's right, you know. Takeshi wouldn't want this, and from what little I know of Kuroko, she wouldn't want this either."

A broken sob escapes me as I look down down at my family photograph. We all looked so happy. Then there is water dripping onto the photo. Oh, I'm crying again.

Arashi and Rai curl around me, and purr comfortingly. "I- I just don't understand why Mom had to die! The war ended, but she still died!" I manage to choke out between sobs.

"She died protecting her comrades, her friends, her family, and her village," Uncle Shikaku said, "She saved many lives." I start to cry harder. Uncle Shikaku moves to hug me, and things start to make sense again.

Rai and I go to the academy the next day. My usually tan skin still hasn't regained its normal color, and my bloodshot, brown eyes are still framed by dark circles, but I actually ate something on my own.

I'm one of the last ones to make to the classroom, and both Hana and Itachi stare at me as I approach our desk. "Hey," I say with small smile I'm sure looks more like a grimace, "sorry about, you know, ignoring you two for the past week."

Hana doesn't say anything but pulls me into a crushing hug. Itachi, after a moment, is also pulled in by Hana. After Hana finally releases us, Itachi looks at me and says "I could never be angry with you when you're grieving. I was just concerned about your wellbeing."

Hana snorts, "What he said," she points at Itachi with a thumb. Then the three Haimaru brothers decide they want to greet me too, and Rai jumps out of my hood with a muttered "Nope, not dealing with them."

A year later finds the three of us sprawled across the floor of my room. Itachi clears his throat, "My father and the elders want me to skip a year because apparently I'm a prodigy," he says in a rush.

After a moment's pause, Hana replied with "Well do you want to?"

He sighs, "Not really."

I snort, "Well, just tell them no. It's ultimately your choice. Besides, I'm technically a genius too, and no one has made me skip a year." Hana starts laughing hysterically at that.

"Yeah, but Yoruka, you manage to score so unbelievably average on everything, even if they know you can handle skipping a year, they don't have proof," Hana manages to get out between bursts of laughter.

"So Itachi can do what I do, and look the people who want him to skip a year straight in the eyes and say "I'm so unbelievably average, look at these completely average scores." It's hilarious watching their reactions. The teachers turn so red when they realize I only answered enough questions to pass," I snicker.

Itachi sighs, "I think that might be worse than telling them I don't want to skip, Yoruka."

"So do that then, the worse they can do to you is disown you, and I doubt your absolute goddess of a mother would let that happen," I reply with a smirk.

"Besides, in the unlikely scenario in which you do get disowned, Mom would adopt you on the spot. She likes you surprisingly well for a cat person," Hana adds on.

Itachi sighs again, "Fine, I'll tell my father and the elders to fuck off."

I choke and Hana loses it once more, "where did you learn that word," I wheeze.

Itachi blinks and just says "Shisui."

Hana descends further into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, as I try to gather myself enough to ask the most important question of all. "Who taught your eight year old cousin that word, and also why have you still not introduced us to your fun cousin," I manage to gasp.

"I worry if I introduce the two of you to him, there would no longer be a village because you all burned it down just to see what would happen," Itachi says with a completely straight face. Hana is crying she's laughing so hard, and I'm soon to join her.

A year later is when Hana and I finally meet Shisui, on a day that just so happens to be October tenth. Judging by what I know of the timeline, today is going to be the day when Obito decides to fuck everything up. Shikamaru has been born, and Hana and Itachi haven't been able to shut up about their own little brothers. Also Namikaze Minato is Hokage now.

Itachi invites us over for dinner and to meet his baby brother, Fugaku glaring at us the entire time. I don't think he likes Hana and I very much, especially after Itachi actually told Fugaku and the elders to fuck off. He used the word and everything. Itachi described their expressions to be "scandalized."

And then Shisui blows into the house like a storm. Chaotic is the only word I can think of to describe him. He glances over at Hana and I, and his entire face lights up. "Itachi, you actually made friends? I thought you were lying to me to get me off your back! This is wonderful," Shisui was suddenly right in front of Hana and me, "I'm Uchiha Shisui, Itachi's fun older cousin!"

"Nara Yoruka," I say exchanging a grin with Hana, "Itachi said he didn't want to introduce us because he was afraid we would burn the village down." Shisui shot a betrayed look at Itachi.

"I'm Inuzuka Hana and these are the Haimaru brothers," she grinned at Shisui, "apparently Yoruka and I are enablers."

"Oh my Gods," Shisui breathed, "this is fucking karma. Itachi complains about me being an agent of chaos, and then he gets you two as friends! This is wonderful! Hey, how about a game of Ninja hide and seek around the compound in the dark? Itachi would never agree to it but if we out vote him..."

Hana and I exchange glances, twin smirks crawling across our faces, "We're in," Hana replies.

Itachi groans is defeat, to which Shisui answers with throwing an arm over his shoulder, "Come on Itachi, it'll be fun!" Shisui exclaimed.

"You said that last time, and I broke my arm," Itachi said with a glare.

"Yeah, but funly!" Shisui justifies with a smile.

"Is that even a word?" I ask.

He sighs, "Probably not."

Playing ninja hide and seek gives me the perfect opportunity to look for Obito, to distract him, maybe. He is a teenager, and no matter how psychotic they are, teenagers can always be distracted by small children. Luckily for me, I'm a small child. I think I remember something about him setting the nine tails loose on the far side of the Uchiha district, so.

I find Obito. "Hey, you're not a Konoha nin, so what are you doing here?" I shout, perhaps stupidly.

He looks at me and just says "ANBU."

"Uh no, Konoha ANBU uses animal masks, not whatever that swirl on your face is supposed to be, furthermore they don't wear cloaks like what you're wearing. Anyone who's ever seen an ANBU can tell you that," I say channeling the most annoying parts of my seven year old urges. I'm also subtly extending my shadow, thanking all the gods in this world, except Kaguya, because fuck Kaguya, that there's a street lamp nearby to actually cast a shadow.

"Hey brat," he growls, turning around to face me fully, "If you know what's good for you, you'll forget you ever saw me." Huh, so he's reluctant to kill children. That's good.

"Wow, that's a bit hypocritical, don't you think? You can't be much older than me. I'd place you at 15 and no older." I discreetly dig one of my sharp nails, a side effect of the lynx summon contract, into my hand to draw blood and make the appropriate hand signs.

"What do you mean, brat, I'm twenty!"

I smile smugly, "your voice is still cracking, so you're still going through puberty." I summon both Arashi and Rai and activate my Shadow Imitation Jutsu, "Go! Tell a shinobi that there's an intruder!" I yell to my summons. They nod and take off like a shot.

I can only hold this jutsu for a minute and a half, so I have to take advantage of that time wisely. Obito's singular eye shifted into the sharingan. I feign surprise. "You're an Uchiha," I breathe, not making eye contact, "or a bloodline thief, but you're definitely not a Konoha shinobi." My jutsu breaks, and he's suddenly in front of me. Kamui, I hysterically think, I forgot about Kamui.

And then there's an actual Konoha ANBU in front of me, a dog mask, different from the one all those years ago, and silver hair. He blocks the attack. "He has the sharingan," I call out, "also, he has some sort of space-time manipulation technique, not hiraishin. He didn't throw anything!"

Obito growls, tries to kamui away but doesn't. He looks confused. Then I see Uncle Shikaku with his hands in a familiar handsign. "Good thinking sending your summons to find shinobi, Yoruka. Arashi told me you were able to hold him with your jutsu, so I thought I'd give it a try."

Mikoto and Fugaku appeared then, with Rai in tow. "Go find your friends, child, we will handle this," Mikoto tells me.

"Rai, you're familiar enough with Hana's and Itachi's scent, so can you go find them?" At her nod of affirmation I turn to Arashi. "Arashi, can you stay with me while I look for Shisui?" He nods back. "Rai, when you find them meet back up with me."

Arashi and I run closer to the house, retracing our steps to find Shisui. Arashi stiffens, sniffs the air, and gestures with his short tail, and says "there." I hurriedly activate my shadow imitation jutsu.

"Arashi, can you go explain the situation before my jutsu breaks?" Arashi nods, and jumps onto the roof where Shisui was.

My jutsu breaks, and Shisui jumps off the roof with a sheepish expression. "Where are Hana and Itachi," he questions.

"I sent my other summon, Rai who's familiar with their scents, to find them," I said walking towards Itachi's house.

We meet up with the others just outside of the house, and wait anxiously until Mikoto comes and gets us. It's morning, the nine tails never got summoned to the village.

"Oh Yoruka, before you go, the Hokage wants to see you," Mikoto says with a smile. Well, shit. There goes my happy anonymity.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows **

**Yoruka questions why people trust a seven year old with convincing an old ally to come back, and decides fuck it, she's just going to make fun of said old ally's teammate with him.**


	7. New Friendships Forged

Uncle Shikaku meets me at the base of the Hokage tower. We walk in silence to the top floor. (Seriously, why isn't there an elevator?) The secretary just waves us in.

When we walked in, it was Namikaze Minato behind the desk. Well there's one question answered. Also, thank the gods because Danzo is going to have to deal with Namikaze fucking Minato instead of his old friend. Therefore, the Uchihas should be fine, and Itachi won't be manipulated into killing his entire family.

"Well, Yoruka, you did a great service to the village last night," Minato starts.

"Actually, with all due respect Hokage-sama, I didn't do anything special. I just distracted an apparent teenager while I waited for help," I interrupt.

"Yoruka, you are seven. At your age that is an incredible accomplishment, even for the notoriously intelligent Nara clan. Due to your resourcefulness and maturity, I have a mission for you!" Damn it, I don't want extra work. "The intruder you came across last night was actually a former Konoha nin we thought was dead. He's been manipulated by an enemy of the village, so we want to rehabilitate him. The problem is, he refuses to speak with any of our professional psychologists." Ok, so Obito doesn't want a Yamanaka in his head. Understandable.

"So, in conclusion, we want you to talk to him. Befriend him, if you will," Minato explains with a bright smile, like he can't think of why anyone would refuse this.

I eye both him and my uncle suspiciously, "Why can't someone he knew before we thought he died do it? Wouldn't that make more sense, instead of you know, the person who irritated him until he got caught?" I question.

Minato sighs, "Normally yes, but the person who was responsible for turning him against Konoha also turned him against his previous teammates. So, our only options are someone completely unfamiliar or you. You would be the better option, as you're small and not a shinobi."

"How troublesome, I suppose I don't have a choice then," I say as I pinch the bridge of my nose. Uncle Shikaku chokes in surprise.

"Wow, Yoruka. I thought you didn't want to contribute to the Nara stereotype," he coughs.

"Some situations require the phrase to adequately describe my feelings on the matter," I sniff.

"To get back to the matter at hand," Minato interrupts our playful squabble, "the person you're going to be talking to is Uchiha Obito, Hound will escort you to where you will be talking to him and protect you if the situation calls for it."

I walk into what appears to be an interrogation room, Hound right beside me, to see Uchiha Obito cuffed to the table. I assume the cuffs are chakra suppressants because otherwise he could just Kamui away.

"Well, well, well, Minato-Sensei sends an actual child to try and get me to come back to Konoha. How foolish, I could kill you where you stand, brat,"

Obito laughs, and I feel Hound stiffen next to me.

I scoff, "Traditional intimidation tactics, threaten the interrogator to shift the balance of power in your favor. Unfortunately for you, I'm not here to get information, so I'm not being left wrongfooted by not having power over you. Also, if you really wanted me dead, you would have killed me as soon as you saw me last night. I'm Yoruka by the way, I'm here to befriend you." I plop down into the seat across from Obito.

He looks at me consideringly, "So kid, how're you going to do it? Talk my ear off everyday until I get so annoyed that I cooperate?"

I grin, "Nah," I bite my finger to draw blood and summon Rai, who's still juvenile and cute, "I'm going to bribe you with cats. Every Uchiha I've ever met likes cats, even Fugaku, and you're an Uchiha." I hear Hound snort. I shoot a conspiratory look at Obito, "Dog people, am I right?"

Obito, to my amazement, and apparently his as well, cracks up, "Oh my... gods, Bakashi, where did you find her? She's- she's hilarious!" He manages to say between fits of laughter. "And yes kid, I do like cats," Obito says after he manages to pull himself together.

I shoot a look at Hound, who I know damn well is Hatake Kakashi, "Is that your name? Bakashi? A bit cruel don't you think?" Obito devolves into a fit of laughter once again, and I swear I hear a long suffering sigh come from Hound's direction.

This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows **

**Yoruka grows up.**


	8. Life Goes On

Itachi and I celebrate Hana's eighth birthday much in the same manner we celebrate my birthday. We drag her to her favorite café, buy her lunch, and give her gifts. I follow tradition and give her a cat stuffed animal for her growing collection, she started it by giving me a stuffed dog and so we give each other a cat or a dog every year. I also get the Haimaru brothers, who have recently got a grasp on human language, matching red scarves where Hana can attach their Hitai-ite when she becomes a Genin.

Itachi, who actually gives meaningful gifts, gives her a book on medical ninjutsu. Hana actually tears up a little. She's been expressing interest in learning it for a while now.

The Academy is painfully monotonous and I soon succumb to the famed Nara tradition, sleeping through class. I already know everything they're going over, including algebra. Also who in their right minds teaches eight year olds algebra? It's ridiculous!

I continue to be a thorn in Maki-Sensei's side by scoring painfully average on everything, while still sleeping through class. In ninjutsu class, I calculate how well my classmates are going to do, and put myself in the direct center of the pack. Taijutsu, I display no hint of the Nara style, which I actually train in quite frequently with Hana and Itachi outside of class, and show only a modicum of competency in the academy style. In the academic classes, I only answer enough questions to pass. And so on like that.

The best part is, every single teacher at the academy knows what I'm doing, they just don't have proof and can't do anything about it. The chaos I'm causing is beautiful. Huh, Shisui was right in calling us agents of chaos.

"Hey, Yoruka, I have to go," Aunt Yoshino hands me a one year old Shikamaru, "take care of him for an hour or two please!"

I stare at him, "What am I supposed to do with a baby?" I question the empty house.

An hour later, Aunt Yoshino finds Shikamaru in tears and me sobbing hysterically, "What am I supposed to do?" I scream in frustration, which makes Shikamaru cry harder, and in turn makes me cry harder.

Aunt Yoshino sighs, takes Shikamaru from me, calms him down somehow and grumbles, "I didn't realize I was raising two babies."

Needless to say, I never babysat again.

Two years pass in much the same way, me annoying Obito, who's now on house arrest in the Uchiha district and talking to Kakashi again, Shisui, Hana, and I terrorizing the general populace as Itachi watches on in exasperated horror, and making the academy teachers miserable. It's my tenth birthday, and Hana and Itachi break tradition and throw me a big party.

I walk downstairs in my pajamas to find Aunt Yoshino, Uncle Shikaku, Shikamaru, Hana, Itachi, Shisui, Obito, and Kakashi not in ANBU gear. I blink in surprise, "Why is everyone here?"

Shisui snorts, "It's your birthday silly, and you never celebrate with anyone besides Itachi and Hana. So we decided to throw you one!"

"I didn't even know you knew Obito, Shisui. Also why is Hound not in ANBU gear?" I respond.

Obito snickers and Kakashi sighs, "Shisui decided he wanted to befriend the local brainwashed criminal about a year ago, and Bakashi was informed that it's impolite to wear ANBU gear to a birthday party by your delightful aunt." Obito says cheerfully. He and Shisui do give off the same aura of bad life choices.

Kakashi sighs again, "Thanks for blowing my cover, Yoruka. And how did you even know Hound and I were the same person?"

I shrug, "Body language, mostly. You're also with Obito so... And if you don't want me blowing your cover every time I see you out of ANBU, give me a name besides Hound to call you. I sincerely doubt your actual name is Bakashi, as hilarious as it is, and I'm not about to call you Obito's name for you. It's personal."

Kakashi shrugs, holds out a hand to shake, and says "Hatake Kakashi, happy birthday Yoruka."

Despite my dislike of crowds, it was a fun birthday.

Hana decides she wants Itachi and me to meet Kiba. Even after she laughed at my failure at babysitting Shikamaru.

Kiba is an obnoxiously cute three year old. Itachi falls for his adorableness the worst though. I look fondly at Itachi giving the little hellion a piggyback back ride around Hana's house. He's so easy to manipulate with a cute baby.

I glance over at Hana, wince at her mischievous smile, and decide she knows exactly what she's doing. She completely purposely manipulated Itachi into entertaining her little brother. I kind of feel bad for him, but he likes children, so he's asking for it.

I stare suspiciously at Uncle Shikaku over the Shogi board. He smiles at me and I shudder. He's definitely planning something. Something that I won't like. "That's checkmate, Yoruka!" He says cheerfully. "You are getting much better though, so I'll be able to hand Jonin Commander over to you with no issues whenever you become a Jonin."

I sputter, "I don't want your job, that's way too much paperwork, I'll just never become a Jonin. Hah! Your plans have been foiled!" My words run together.

Uncle Shikaku smiles serenely, "Don't forget Yoruka, I get to decide who displays the adequate skills needed to become a Jonin." I hate him, I swear I really do.

I laugh nervously, "Wouldn't Shikamaru be a better option? He is your son after all."

He snorts, "I'm trying to get rid of my job as soon as possible. You're seven years older than Shikamaru, so you get it."

I sigh in resignation, "Damn it..."

Uncle Shikaku, the ass, laughs at me.

A year passed, and it was time for the graduation exams. I decided to keep my impossibly average streak going, literally just to rub it into Maki-sensei's face.

"Are you sure you have no jutsus for extra credit, Yoruka? Not even a clan jutsu or a summoning contract?" Maki-Sensei knows full well that I do, but he can't make me use them on the test.

I grin viciously, "Nope!"

"Well," he sighs, "you pass." He sounds miserable as gives me my Hitai-ite.

When Hana sees me walk back into the room holding up my Hitai-ite in victory, she giggles hysterically. Itachi just sighs.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows **

**Yoruka gets a Genin team.**


	9. The Dog, the Cat, the Weasel,

"Alright brats, be back here to tomorrow for team assignments." Maki-Sensei dismisses us.

"I wonder if we'll be on the same team," Hana says as she puts her hands behind her head.

I yawn, "Probably, the usually put people who work together well on a team," I say poking the Hitai-ite tied around my arm in bemusement.

"Besides," Itachi deadpans, "we're the only two people in our class that can make Yoru do any work whatsoever, Hana."

I snicker as Hana confirms what Itachi said with a nod.

I walk into my house to see Uncle Shikaku doing paperwork at the dining room table. "Yo, Uncle, I graduated," I say as I pass him on my way to the kitchen to grab a snack.

"That's wonderful, Yoruka. Now I can start teaching you higher ranked clan jutsus. Such as the Shadow Blade jutsu which you expressed interest in learning, as well as the Nara kenjutsu style to adequately use the shadow blade. Eat your snack and meet me in the clan training grounds," he said as he put his papers away and walked out of the house. I groaned.

I collapse into my seat with a groan. Hana and Itachi look concerned. "You uh, alright there, Yoru?" Hana asks.

"Fine,"I rant, "everything is fine. Other than the fact my uncle decided I needed to learn a B-rank jutsu that requires a base kenjutsu style to utilize properly!"

Hana winces, "Sounds rough."

"Alright brats," Maki-Sensei yells as he enters the classroom, "time for team assignments!" Maki-Sensei goes through some names, "Team 12 will be Uchiha Itachi, Inuzuka Hana, and Nara Yoruka. Your Jonin-Sensei will be Hyuga Ryu," he proceeds to mutter something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like "that poor bastard."

I exchange grins with Itachi and Hana. Well grins with Hana, Itachi just kind of smirks.

Hyuga Ryu is a very punctual shinobi and shows up right after lunch. A brief call of "Team 12" summons us into the hall. He looks us over with an assessing gaze. "Meet on training ground six," he says before he disappears into a shunshin.

I stare at the spot he was a second ago, "I don't believe he'll be someone who takes kindly to us being late," I muse quietly.

"I imagine you're right," Itachi agrees.

"Well, then let's stop dawdling and get to training ground six! Wait, where is training ground six?" Hana exclaims.

I sigh, "I have no idea."

We decide to send Hana's ninkin and my summons out to look for the training ground as we ask around the village. However, every single shinobi we ask doesn't tell us anything. Until finally Hana loses her temper, walks up to a random chunin in the market, waves a wad of cash in his face and offers to pay him to lead us to training ground six.

The chunin takes her up on it to my amazement. He leads us to a fairly well hidden training ground next to the walls where Ryu-Sensei is waiting for us. The Haimaru brothers and my summons are there as well. The chunin shunshins away with a quiet good luck.

"Well, since you all found us without using your ninkin or summons, you pass," he states blandly.

"Wait, what!" Hana sputters, "So all of those chunin and Jonin that didn't answer when we asked where Training Ground Six was, that was your doing?"

Ryu-Sensei smirked and nodded. "If I may ask, what was the purpose of this test?" Itachi asks.

"Information gathering and dedication. I payed off all of the shinobi in village to not tell any Genin where this training ground was. Normally, there would be a teamwork aspect of this test, but you three didn't need that," Ryu-Sensei explains.

"Actually, I was going to pass you when the Nara girl manipulated a Jonin into a conversation about his favorite training grounds, and the Jonin told me he almost gave it away. But, the Inuzuka actually paid someone and got the answer," he continues.

"So, should we introduce ourselves?" I drawl.

Ryu-Sensei nods, "Why don't you start since you brought it up?"

I sigh dramatically, "Nara Yoruka, I like cats, sweets, spicy foods, and sleep. I dislike large crowds. My hobbies are reading, sleeping, and drawing, and my goal for the future is to not get roped into taking my uncle's job."

Arashi chokes back a laugh, "He's really trying to give you Jonin commander? That's hilarious!"

I give him a look, "I don't know whether that's insulting or relieving that you think that."

"Inuzuka next," Ryu-Sensei sighs.

Hana grins, "I'm Inuzuka Hana! I like dogs, running, spicy foods, and green tea. I dislike sweets and betrayal. My hobbies are helping in the Inuzuka clinic and practicing medical ninjutsu. My goals for the future is to make Jonin!"

"I guess I'm next," Itachi says. "Uchiha Itachi. My likes are sweets and cats. Dislikes are being forced to do something I don't want to do and spicy food. Hobbies are reading and training," he ignores my cough of "training isn't a hobby." "My goal for the future is to protect the village to the best of my ability."

"Great, I'm Hyuga Ryu." Ryu-Sensei flips his long black hair behind his shoulder. "That's all I'm telling you."

Training with Ryu-Sensei is hell. On the bright side Hana is getting more more practice in medical ninjutsu. "Alright, students, get over here." Ryu-Sensei called.

I groaned as I got to my feet. Ryu-Sensei hands us all a paper. "This is a chakra nature paper. Infuse it with chakra. Fire, it burns. Wind, it's shredded. Water, it gets soaked. Earth, it turns to dirt. And finally, lightning crumples up." He explains.

My chakra paper crumpled up. "Huh, lighting. That's interesting." I say.

Itachi's holding a handful of ash. "Mine is fire, but that's not surprising."

Hana hums, "Earth."

"Alright, now we have a D-rank. Babysitting." Ryu-Sensei says. Damn. I'm so bad with children.

I continue learning the Shadow Blade Jutsu and Nara kenjutsu style. I have the basic forms mastered and can hold the blade for about 30 minutes, much longer than I can hold my Shadow Imitation Jutsu.

Ryu-Sensei gives us all elemental jutsus to learn, he told us we have to master them before he even considers giving us a C-rank. I master the electrocution technique last.

"Alright, brats, since Yoruka finally mastered her elemental jutsu, we have a C-rank. We're going to be delivering this scroll to an outpost on the Lightning border," Ryu-Sensei says. I can't help but to feel something is going to go wrong.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows **

**In which Yoruka really needs to trust her gut, and Kamui is absolute bullshit as always.**


	10. Thunder

My mission gear is very similar to what I wore to the academy, except for the fact that I have a mesh shirt underneath my black t-shirt for additional armor and my kunai pouch attached onto the back of my belt. I pack some extra kunai just in case.

My team meets at the gates. "Alright, Hana you get the scroll because you're the fastest." Ryu-Sensei gives Hana the scroll.

"But Sensei shouldn't you carry the scroll? You are the strongest," Hana asks.

I shake my head, "On the off chance we run into an enemy nin, they'll go after the biggest threat first, which is Sensei."

Ryu-Sensei nods at me, "Itachi, you're taking point, Yoruka, left, Hana, right, and I'll bring up the rear," he assigns.

Ryu-Sensei says the trip should take two weeks round trip at our current speed, and boy, am I glad Mom made me run all of those laps when she was first teaching me taijutsu. But still, a whole two weeks of running sounds like a special type of hell.

After a full day of monotonous scenery of blurred trees passing by at ninja speeds, we made camp by a river. My legs were trembling as I sat down to go through my stretches. A quick look to either side is all it took to realize Hana and Itachi were in similar states of exhaustion. Ryu-Sensei was infuriatingly unruffled.

We set up camp and I take first watch. Running distracted me from the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach I had before we left, but now that I'm alone with my thoughts, I worry. I know for a fact that C-ranks can and will go wrong. Wave arc, anyone? Most people in my situation would chalk it up to protagonist luck, but still, they go wrong for other people too.

Also, would I count as a protagonist? It's not like Naruto will be the same. He still has his dad. I'm not sure about Kushina, I haven't seen her anywhere. And I'm the one who changed all of that. Wait, I ran into Obito very easily. Does that mean I have protagonist luck? Oh, I've doomed my entire team to a screwed up C-rank. I'm so sorry.

My thoughts circle uselessly like this until I go wake Itachi for his watch. As active as my mind was on watch, it's silent now. I fall asleep as soon as my head touches the pillow.

The morning comes, bright and entirely to early. I don't want to get up. I want to become one with the trees and never move. I tell Ryu-Sensei as much. He snorts and nudges my bed roll with his foot. I grumble.

We eat ration bars for breakfast. They're disgusting and I'm never going to be able to untaste them. And then we're off. Yay, more running.

Spending days on end doing nothing but running leaves me too much time to think. Things that I've been repressing for 11 years decide mid-mission is the best time to come up. I start thinking about my life before my death.

My death doesn't really upset me. The fact that I still can't remember the circumstances behind it irritates me, though. I like knowing all the facts, both in my past life and now.

I do remember that I was ridiculously stressed at the time of my death, but I was stressed since I entered high school in that life. I believe that my parents in this life were much better than my parents in my past. Though I knew them for a far shorter time. So yeah, I'm not really upset.

I guess repressing the memories doesn't really do anything, if the memories don't effect me.

We are uncomfortably close to the border with Lighting five days in. I know something is going to go wrong, and when something goes wrong on C-rank missions, it's usually near a border. Or in Wave. C-ranks in Wave just go wrong. It's not protagonist luck or anything.

We set up camp that night without a fire. My watch is uneventful, but apparently Sensei's is not. I'm asleep when he puts his hand over my mouth to keep me quiet and wakes me up. He has the last watch, so the air is gray with dawn. Ryu-Sensei motions for me to stay silent as he wakes Hana and Itachi.

As we sneak through the underbrush, Sensei decides we should take advantage of our familiarity with the environment and take to the branches. The ninja the Ryu-Sensei sensed, were uh, not very ninja like which either meant they were very good or very bad. They moved very loudly through the foliage.

Then there was a flash of light and a high powered lighting jutsu traveling straight toward Itachi. Shit, he's not going to get out of the way in time. Well, I guess it's now or never, I think as I jump in front of the jutsu. I extend one hand toward the jutsu, opening my chakra networks as wide as they'll go, and extend the other toward the tree to catch and ground myself with.

The lighting hits my hand, and all I can feel is hot, searing pain coursing through my body as I redirect the lighting out of my other hand and into the tree. I've become a living lighting rod, I think somewhat hysterically.

Then it's over, my hand I caught the lighting with covered with electrical burns, and I sway slightly in relief. I cough, "Well, I might need to make some slight adjustments to the technique."

Everyone is staring at me, including the enemy nin, Kumo I vaguely observe. "Yoruka, what-" Sensei starts.

"I'll explain later," I interrupt staring at the Kumo nin in concentration. All three of them look somewhat familiar.

The dark skinned, blond (they're all blond) man grins, "Hey little girl, that was cool. But you see, you made Cee look the fool." I pale.

"Shit," I whisper. Itachi looks at me in askance. "That's Killer Bee, an S rank shinobi from Kumo, I think that one is Cee," I gesture to the pale, blond man and woman, "An A rank shinobi, and she might be Nii Yugito, another S rank." Both Hana and Itachi grimace. Oh I knew this mission was going to go all kinds of sideways.

Yugito gives me an odd look, "One of your brats is oddly well informed," she addresses Ryu-Sensei.

"I like to be prepared, besides all three of you are in the Bingo Book," I shrug, "Doesn't take much effort to read one."

Ryu-Sensei ignores me, "What I want to know is why there are Kumo nin in the Land of Fire and throwing around powerful lightning jutsus at that," he glares at the Kumo shinobi.

Cee shrugs, "I suppose I can tell you, considering you're not making it out of this situation alive," I bristle and Hana's ninkin growl, "We need to intercept a specific scroll being sent to the Konoha border station, and well, your team got in our way."

I carefully avoid looking at Hana, they don't know we have a scroll. Ryu-Sensei has the same thought I do. "Hana," he growls, "get to the border station, complete the mission, and get help."

She nods and I see Killer Bee with his swords drawn going to stop her. He's fast, faster than me, but I have a shorter distance to travel. I block his blades with my Shadow Blade, summoned in the short time it took to intercept him. The force behind his blow almost instantly overwhelms me, but I lock him in place with my shadow possession jutsu. I dig my nails into my already damaged right hand, he does the same. I grin at him as a puff of smoke announces Arashi's presence above his head.

Arashi flails around and scratches the unsuspecting Killer Bee down the face as the time runs out on my shadow possession jutsu. I jump back during the distraction and take stock of the situation. Itachi is currently locked in a ninjutsu battle with Cee, Sharingan blazing. Ryu-Sensei is fighting Yugito, probably trying to rupture an organ with gentle fist. That man is an actual demon.

Arashi is at my side, analyzing the situation. Killer Bee grins ferociously, "Yugito! The brat has a cat!" I watch him warily. Like hell am I going to make the first move.

I can feel Yugito's exasperation from here. "A little busy, Bee!" She calls back. Ryu-Sensei presses his advantage and manages to get a glancing blow in to her abdomen. She cries out in pain.

Killer Bee scowls in anger. I look at him apprehensively. He runs at me and it's all I can do to resummon my Shadow Blade in time.

Arashi does what he can, weaving in and out between his legs trying to trip him. Unfortunately, he still gets a fairly good slice in down my back as he back flips over me. I stumble forward, a scream of pain ripping out of my throat. I fall to the ground and land on my burned right hand, a sob following. My Shadow Blade fades as I lose concentration.

I brace myself, waiting for the killing blow, but it never comes. Instead, the sound of clashing metal appears. I gasp and turn around to see Kakashi fending off Killer Bee and Obito defending Itachi.

Kamui, I hysterically giggle. Kamui is such bullshit. My vision starts to go black, and oh, my back is bleeding a lot. Then I remember nothing more.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows **

**Yoruka recovers. **


	11. Healing

The world around me is hazy. I can vaguely make out worried voices and indistinguishable shapes moving around me. There's a dull throb coming from my back and right arm. Then I'm fading back into the warm, comforting darkness.

I awake to a sharp, stabbing pain in my back and my right arm shooting burning fire into my nerves. Groaning, I open my eyes only to immediately shut them again. The bright, white light searing into my eye lids. Why is it so fucking bright?

A gasp alerts me to another person in the room. "Yoruka, you're awake!" Hana's voice calls out.

"Uh yeah, Hana," I croak, "where are we?" I ask, placing my good hand over my eyes. Hopefully, this will allow my eyes to adjust.

"Obito and Kakashi kamuied us back to Konoha," she explains, "You're in the Hospital now." I answer her with a nod, which was a mistake. The motion disturbs the wound on my back, sending a burning sensation down my entire body.

I gasp in shock, "Oh Yoruka, are you ok? I should get the doctors. They did tell me to get them when you woke up..." Hana rambles.

"I'm fine," I choke out, "my back just hurts." A pained sob escapes my mouth, " a lot."

I hear the door open and Itachi let out a sound of concern and say, "I'll go get a doctor or a nurse or someone." The door closes again, but my back has decided to stage a full scale revolt against my nervous system, and I barely take note of it.

Hana flutters around worriedly and one of her ninkin whine nervously. The door slams open and a strangled groan tears free from my throat.

"Yoruka, I just heard," Uncle Shikaku growls, "this was supposed to be a C-rank, how did this happen?"

"Some Kumo Jonin ambushed us by the border. I ran to get help while Yoruka and the others distracted the Kumo nin. Yoruka got injured while this was happening," Hana explains.

Shikaku sighs, "I swear kid, you're going to give me a heart attack before I'm forty." The door opens again and what sounds like a nurse says that he's going to give me more painkillers because they've worn off. I fade into blissful unconsciousness.

The next time I wake up, the pain in my back has faded from the excruciating experience I had last time I awoke to a dull throb. The burns on my arm only ache now, instead of the burning feeling it was earlier. My eyes adjust easier as well.

I look around and see Ryu-Sensei asleep in a chair beside my bed. Uncle Shikaku, Aunt Yoshino, and Shikamaru are on my other side. Aunt Yoshino is asleep as well, but Uncle Shikaku and Shikamaru are on the ground playing shogi.

"Hey," I raise my uninjured hand in a small wave. They look up simultaneously, and gods, do they look similar.

Shikamaru crawls up onto my bed and pokes my good arm where I would normally put my hitai-ite, "You're not supposed to get hurt, Yoru," he says somberly.

I smile softly, "Sorry Shika, sometimes it just happens." Uncle Shikaku's lips quirk upwards.

A week later finds my team and me in the Hokage's office. "Now, normally, after a mission like that, I wouldn't hesitate to give you three a field promotion to chunin," Minato grins, "but the chunin exams this year are in Kumo and I'm feeling petty. What I was thinking was to enter you three into the exams in order to rub salt into Kumo's embarrassing failure to get a scroll from a team of Genin. But I will give you the choice, I will promote any one of you now should you wish it."

I side eye my teammates, Hana's looking confused. "But Hokage-Sama I didn't really do anything," Hana protests.

"Nonsense," Minato states, "you might not have fought, but you displayed well above chunin level speeds, a good head for memorization, and the ability to accurately relay information to get your teammates out safely. You deserve the promotion just as much as Itachi and Yoruka do."

Hana still looks skeptical, but nods. "Regardless, I want to take the exams anyway," she says.

I grin, "I'm feeling somewhat vindictive, so I'll take it too."

Itachi sighs, "Someone has to go along to keep you two in line. Might as well be me."

Minato smirks viciously, "Excelent."

"One more thing Hokage-Sama," I start, "Why was Kumogakure willing to risk war for a scroll."

Minato gains a calculative look in his eye, "Kumo tried to kidnap the Hyuga heir and made some phony excuses. The scroll you were carrying contained the orders for the shinobi at the border station. They thought I might declare war, I suppose. But I'm not a warmonger."

I nod lightly as my team walks out. Ryu-Sensei stares at me in expectation. "What?" I question.

"Explain that lightning redirection jutsu you did. I've never seen anything like it." I wince.

"Ah, that. It wasn't really a jutsu. I just completely opened the tenketsu in my hands, directed the foreign lightning chakra through my channels to the tenketsu in my stomach, then out through my other arm. You have to keep it away from your heart, or else it'll kill you. I spent a lot of my independent study time sticking forks into electrical sockets instead of working on my actual jutsu though." I explain vaguely.

I hear a snort behind me, and I turn to see Kakashi walking toward us. "I caught the tail end of that, and I'm stuck in a state of wanting to know and being afraid of the answer," he says in way of greeting.

Hana giggles, "Yoruka figured out how to redirect lightning jutsu through her body," she says non-apologetically.

I blush, "It'll only work if your chakra nature is already lightning," I mutter.

"Why were you two even at the border anyway?" The thought occurs to me as I drink tea with Kakashi and Obito at Obito's new house.

Obito snorts, "Minato-Sensei thought I was getting restless and sent Kakashi and me to check up on all of the border stations. It was just a coincidence we were there when Hana arrived."

"It was a good thing we were, though," Kakashi nonchalantly sips his tea. How he does so without removing his mask remains a mystery.

I frown, "Yeah, it seemed like Killer Bee was just toying with me. Had he been expecting us to get speedy reinforcements, I'd probably be dead." Kakashi's hand tightens around his tea cup and Obito scowls at that thought.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows **

**Preparations are made**


	12. Of Training Montages and Sma

"Alright, the Chunin Exams are in six months, so I'm cracking down on training," Ryu-Sensei states ominously. I exchange a glance full of dread with Hana as Itachi looks resolutely ahead.

"Itachi, you're sparring with me first. Hana, work on chakra control with Yoruka. Then Hana and Itachi are going to switch and Yoruka is going to work on getting her handsigns with her right hand back up to speed. Any questions?" Ryu-Sensei explains.

My hand shoots up, "Yeah, why am I not doing any taijutsu?"

Ryu-Sensei glares at me, "You're hurt and the most strenuous thing you will be doing for a month is physical therapy."

I sigh in relief. Physical therapy might be hell, but sparring with Ryu-Sensei is an even worse hell.

"Yoruka, get Kakashi to teach you a higher level lightning jutsu while you're benched from all physical activities," Ryu-Sensei adds on. I groan. Trying to get something from Kakashi is like pulling teeth. Painful and inconvenient.

"Just for that, the next D-rank I give you will be a babysitting one. Emphasis on the baby." Hana snickers as I pale.

We don't get the D-rank that day, instead Itachi, Hana, and I decide to walk our assorted smaller relatives home from the academy. Itachi and Hana are both exhausted from going head to head with a fucking Hyuga Jonin, so we sit against a nearby tree waiting for class to be let out.

I waste time by catching falling leaves with my shadow. I'm fairly certain Itachi fell asleep, which rude, way to steal my schtick. Hana is tossing kunais for her ninkin to catch. It's kind of adorable in a "This kid can murder me in my sleep and she has cute dogs to help her" kind of way.

When the Academy finally lets out, I subtly nudge Itachi awake, because in Fugaku's words, "The Uchiha heir must not be seen napping in public."

We stand so we can recognize children easier, even though most are giving us a wide berth. That might have something to do with Itachi's chronic Resting Bitch Face™, my steadily worsening scowl, and Hana's ridiculously large ninkin.

Shikamaru spots us first and greets me with a delightfully droll "Wow, Yoru, you look like Father figured out a way to pawn off Jonin Commander onto a Genin." By the gods, does everyone know Uncle Shikaku is trying to give me his job?

"Thanks, Shika," I reply with an entirely straight face. He hums, then collapses entirely back into my stomach, leaving me to support his weight. I let out an ooph as the air escapes my lungs.

Itachi spots Sasuke next and waves him over. Sasuke reluctantly approaches. "Who are they?" He asks with a disgruntled expression on his face.

Itachi exhales dramatically, "My teammates."

Hana smirks, "Oh yeah, we haven't seen your baby bro since he was an actual baby. I still can't believe we got banned from your house, by the way."

I yawn in agreement as Sasuke sputters, "What did you two even do?"

"I pushed Shisui through a wall." I'm completely non-apologetic.

Hana nods sagely, "I was an accomplice."

Stars light up in Sasuke eyes, "Can you do it again? In front of me this time? He's so annoying!" Shikamaru snorts.

Itachi pinches the bridge of his nose and cuts us off before we can agree, because we'd obviously do it, "Hana, isn't that your brother?" He points out.

Hana brightens considerably, "Kiba!" She calls out, "Over here!" Her brother begins to walk in our direction with a blond kid tagging along.

"Hey Hana, Hana's teammates!" Kiba grins. "This is Naruto, my best friend, and Naruto this is my sister, Hana and her teammates!"

Naruto grins at us and I start. This kid is the spitting image of Minato. How did no one realize this in canon?

"Hey," he frowns at me, "Why is Shika laying on you?"

Shikamaru cracks open an eye, "This is my sister who's actually my cousin, I can lay on her if I like." He closes his eye again.

I snort, "I'm Nara Yoruka, a pleasure to meet you Naruto." The poor boy looks confused.

"Hey Hana," I hear Kiba say, "Naruto is coming over for dinner, so he's gonna walk home with us."

"Alright, you sleepy gremlin," I say as I push Shikamaru up, "let get you home." He grumbles a bit. "See you tomorrow, Hana, Itachi!" I call as I leave.

A week later finds me at Obito's house to find Kakashi. Seriously, every time I've been over there, Kakashi was there too.

"Hey, Yoruka long time, no see!" Shisui calls out from the dining room table.

"Hey, Shisui, I didn't know you knew Obito well enough for tea," I said, plopping down in the chair next to him.

Obito nodded exasperatedly, "He showed up like a day after I got released to stay here and forced me into friendship. Kind of like you, now that I'm thinking about it."

I let out a wounded sound, then cough, "Anyway, Kakashi, I need to learn another lightning jutsu before the Chunin Exam, can you teach me one?"

Kakashi eyes me skeptically, "I'm not going to teach you Chidori or anything like that, you know."

I snort, "Of course not, I'm a Genin."

"Fine, I'll teach you one," he answers.

I grin at him, "So Obito, Shisui, what have you two been up to?"

Kirishima Izumi is a very accomplished retired medic that works as a physical therapist now. She also happens to be absolutely terrifying. The stretches she has me doing to build my flexibility back up are terrible, but her glare when I complain is worse.

"Now, Yoruka, would you mind falling into a backbend again?" She says sweetly. I shudder, I would almost rather sparring against Ryu-Sensei.

I sigh, Kakashi is late. I don't know why I'm surprised. Suddenly leaves hit me in the face and Kakashi was there. I glare at him as I spit a leaf out of my mouth. "Maa, Yoruka," he rubs his neck sheepishly, "I got sidetracked saving a cat from a tree."

"Bullshit," I mutter. He just smiles at me.  
"I've spent a long time thinking about this, and I've decided. I'm going to teach you Lightning Release: Discharge. It's very versatile and perfect for the Chunin Exams. Here are the handsigns," he flashed through a series of signs, "and depending on how you end the sequence, the discharge will have different effects."

I know this is just going to help in the long run, but Kakashi's menacing smile worries me.

A month passes with me just training my ninjutsu skills, so when I'm cleared for taijutsu again, Ryu-Sensei kicks my ass to get me back in shape.

Hana and Itachi are gloating internally, I can feel it. Hana shoots me a pitying look from where she's throwing senbon. Itachi just sets a tree on fire.

Ryu-Sensei throws me over his shoulder into the dirt. I groan miserably. Ryu-Sensei stares at me and says the dreaded word: "Again." I huff and get back into my starting stance. And proceed to get my ass handed to me once again.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows **

**The Chunin Exams start.**


	13. Chunin Exams: Part One

Six months passed in a blur of hard training and various C and D-rank missions, though none as eventful as our first C-rank. It was late December when we set out for Kumogakure, and we all brought a set of cold weather gear. In my case, I bought a set of shinobi grade pants and Uncle Shikaku gifted me an almost replica of my normal green hoodie, just with a fur lined hood and much warmer.

Kakashi met us at the gate. He threw something at me that I caught in reflex, "Good luck, kid," he nodded at me.

I look down at the objects in my hand and see a pair of arm guards that look familiar. I quirk an eyebrow at Kakashi, "Are these ANBU?"

He coughs, "Modeled after my ANBU arm guards, but not from the ANBU storeroom."

I smile at him, "Thanks, Kakashi." I roll up the arms on my jacket, then strap the arm guards over my mesh sleeves.

He gives me a notorious eye smile, "No problem. Also, those are ceramic, so they shouldn't mess up any of your lightning jutsus."

I gape at him, last time I heard ceramic armor was crazy expensive. He gives a lazy wave and shunshins away.

Hana nudges me in the ribs, "I'm kinda jealous," she teases, "that you have a cool Jonin friend who buys you stuff."

My face turns red, "Shut up," I mutter.

She laughs uproariously, and Itachi looks over at us in concern. I think he thinks we're going insane or something.

Our week long journey through leaf is uneventful, and the Kumo border guards wave us through the checkpoint. I'm extremely grateful that I brought pants and a warmer jacket, because damn, mountains are cold in the winter. Also, I'm going to travel back in time and beat up whoever thought sandals were appropriate shoes for shinobi. My toes are fucking cold!

We get to Kumogakure with three days before the first stage of the exams. "You three are sharing a room," Ryu-Sensei glares at us, "I'll be damned before I room with any of you."

Itachi looks vaguely offended, "I see that look, Itachi, and you may be quieter than the girls but you're just as bad," Ryu-Sensei walks to the door, "I'm going to sleep for the rest of the day, but you can go explore as long as you don't cause trouble."

Itachi, Hana, and I exchange looks as I question, "Are we really that exhausting?"

Hana snorts, "Well considering I dared you to jump off a cliff, you actually did it, and Itachi has been making smart ass comments completely straight faced the entire trip, I'd say yes, we are."

I grimace, "Fair enough. But the cliff thing wasn't even that bad. It was a small cliff, and I didn't even get hurt."

Hana nods in agreement, "Yeah, Itachi's comments were much worse."

Itachi makes a noise that sounds like a cross between a strangled cough and a squeak. "Excuse you, I was just commenting about how ugly the Kumo Chunin vests are."

"So," I say, changing the subject, "exploring?"  
"Please," one of the Haimaru brothers says.  
Hana laughs, "I guess we're exploring, then!"

We go to the market, ignoring the hostile looks our Konoha hitai-ite got us. The Haimaru brothers sniffing everything, we slowly made our way through the stalls.

Suddenly Hana squeals in excitement and drags Itachi and I towards a clothing stall. "Look, Yoruka," she said, holding up a red scarf remarkably similar to the ones I got her ninkin, "I can match the Haimaru brothers!"

"Yeah, boss!" One of them says excitedly.  
The stall owner walks over to us, "The scarf will be 1,000 Ryo if you're interested in buying it, Shinobi," he says.

Hana nods in agreement, and hands over the money.

After Hana dons her scarf, I spot an art supply booth. I gasp in realization. I'm in Kumogakure, I can get more graphite pencils!

"Hey, I'm going to go to that booth," I inform my teammates. They nod distractedly as they examine crystal figurines.

I meander towards the stall, observing the people around me as I go. When I finally arrive there, I grin victoriously. They do have graphite pencils.

"You an artist?" A deep voice says next to me.  
I start, I didn't even realize anyone was there.

"Nah," I reply, "I just like drawing, and I ran out of my graphite pencils a while ago, so." I look up from the pencils and gesture towards them. I finally look up at the speaker.

I pale as I recognize Cee. No wonder I didn't hear anyone approach, he's a Jonin. He grins sharply at me, "You're that kid who redirected my lightning jutsu. An A-rank jutsu too. That's pretty impressive for a Genin, but I suppose that's why you're here."

I laugh nervously, "Yeah..." I grab a set of high grade pencils.

"Well, I'll be seeing you," he waves as he walks away.

The shop keeper looks just as awestruck as me, "The pencils will be 20,000 Ryo," he says faintly.

"Right..." I hand him the money.

The morning of the first stage of the Chunin Exams dawns bright and early. I grumble furiously as I jerk my hair into its usual ponytail. Hana looks at me warily, "I forgot how much you hate mornings," she trails off as she puts her own hair into a ponytail in a much more sedated pace.

Itachi snorts as he pulls his own hair into a low ponytail. I look on in wonder. "What?" He questions.

"I just realized..." I whisper, "we all wear our hair in ponytails. We have to get Ryu-Sensei to wear one too, so we'll match."

Itachi looks at me incredulously as Hana laughs hysterically. "I forgot how random you are in the morning, too," she gasps out.

I don't actually manage to Ryu-Sensei to wear one to my eternal disappointment. "You know, I don't know what you were expecting, Yoruka," Hana says, "Ryu-Sensei loves his long, voluptuous locks too much to ever tie it up."

Itachi scoffs derisively, "I have nice hair too, but I still tie it up."

Hana nods sympathetically, "We all have nice hair, Itachi."

We walk into the first stage building, and I notice something alarming. I'm the shortest.

"Alright Genin," the epitome of a stereotypical Kumo nin starts, "each team is going to go into a seperate room. There they will have to figure out if their team has been infiltrated, figure out who it is, and solve the puzzle waiting in the room, all before 20 minutes run out."

My team goes to the room, the lights go dark for what feels like five minutes, and then a voice calls out "Your time begins now!"

Hana starts, "We're all ourselves," she states as she points to her nose. Her ninkin nod in agreement.

I eye her suspiciously, "Hey Hana, who's my special Jonin friend who buys me things?"

She laughs, "Hatake Kakashi."

I smile, "Well, let's solve this puzzle then!"

Itachi sighs, "It's a riddle," he's holding a piece of paper, "'What has no top, nor bottom, no sides, nor hinges, but inside lays a golden treasure?' I fucking suck at riddles so I'll be no help."

I start laughing hysterically, "It's-it's an egg," I wheeze.

The doors open, and standing there is the stereotypical Kumo nin, "That's a new record," he sighs, "I guess you pass. Go to the room we met in and wait for further instructions." He walks away dejectedly.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows**

**The second stage begins.**


	14. Chunin Exams: Part Two

An Iwa team walks in at the 10 minute mark, then the other teams start flooding through the door. There's about half as many as the amount that started by the time 20 minutes pass.

A Kumo Kunoichi pops through the door and instructs us to follow her. She leads us to a tent where we wait in a single file line to enter the tent. No one comes out.

Itachi and Hana enter before me, and I can't help the feeling of worry growing in my gut. I'm called to enter after what seems like a lifetime.

"This test will last three days," the shinobi in the tent says, "You'll be placed on a mountain side, and your goal is to find your teammates and each have a scroll. You are not going to receive a scroll from the start; however; other Genin have. So, to pass, meet up with your teammates, all three of you having a scroll, by the end of a three day period." He finishes, pushing a pack into my arms and a seal onto my forehead.

There's a flash of light, then I'm standing in the middle of a large seal in the wilderness. I open my pack and snort. How considerate of Kumo to provide us poor Genin with an entire pack full of food.

I summon Rai and ask her to find Itachi. I figure Hana can find us well enough on her own. She does have ninkin with stronger noses than my lynxes.

In the meantime, I start off in the same direction Rai went, hoping to find a Genin with a scroll. I aimlessly wander for who knows how long, until I hear the crunch of dried grass that signifies the approach of someone.

I lower my head to hide my grin as a figure comes flying out from behind a rock. I almost immediately snag the other Genin with my Shadow Imitation Jutsu. He's Iwa from the Hitai-ite.

He snarls in anger, as I move my hand to the kunai pouch tied to the back of my belt. His hand follows mine, of course, but his pouch is tied to his thigh instead.

I lift my head so he can see my grin, "Now, I normally wouldn't gloat like this," I say as I embed the kunai with enough lighting chakra to paralyze. "But I believe you already know where this is going." I throw the crackling kunai, hitting him in the shoulder.

He collapses, and my jutsu is the only thing holding him up. I release it, then rifle through his pockets to find a scroll. He doesn't have a pack of food, I realize. Shit, the food is motivation for people who received scrolls to attack other people. That's actually pretty clever.

"Yoruka," Rai calls, "I found Itachi." I let out a relieved sigh.

I meet up with Hana, who had the same idea I had to look for Itachi first, and Itachi near a river. Both Hana and Itachi received scrolls at the start, so I was the only one who had food. Food that was not going to last all three of us, plus Hana's ninkin for three days.

Normally, we would be able to supplement the food we have with edible plants and wildlife, but the only vegetation around is stuff we're unfamiliar with, and no one has seen any sign of wildlife. There's not even fish in the river. The lack of food won't kill us, but it will significantly weaken us.

The sun goes down and we carefully ration out our food for supper. We don't risk a fire, so we huddle together for warmth and I pull my hood up as I take first watch.

I'm growing drowsy and desperately trying to keep myself awake when I realize all is not as it should be. "Hana, Itachi, wake up," I nudge the awake. "Something's wrong," I whisper once they're alert.

I hear a rumbling from underground and we all jump back right before the ground explodes underneath us. Three shinobi erupt from the ground below us, and I see the mark on their hitai-ite reflecting the moon. Leave it to Iwa to be a pain in my ass.

Itachi shoots off a fire jutsu, then we're fighting again. I catch one in my Shadow Imitation Jutsu as Hana hits her in the neck with a senbon, effectively knocking the Iwa kunoichi out.

Then I feel the wind shift around my head. Reacting on instinct, I slip under the powerful punch, one that might have killed me if it made contact with my head, and summon my Shadow Blade. There's a wet squish, and the Iwa nin gasps in pain, before collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut.

I look comprehensively at my hands, covered in deep red liquid. Then to the still and silent body. I feel myself trembling like a leaf. Shit. I killed somebody.

It's not against the rules, I tell myself slightly hysterically. There's a hand on my shoulder and I violently flinch. "Yoruka, Yoruka," Hana whispers as Itachi pulls me into a hug.

I vaguely realize that Itachi must have defeated the other Iwa nin. "Yoruka, you did what you had to do," Hana attempts to reassure. "He was going for the kill with that punch," Itachi adds in.

I shudder again, then do what I've been doing since Dad died, and shove my unwanted emotions to the back of my mind to deal with later. Never, probably.

I look up at my teammates and smile weakly, "Thanks," my voice wobbles. They don't mention it, and I'm grateful. I wash my hands off before we find another spot to make camp. Hana grabs the food from the Iwa team, it was him or me, I tell myself again. I try to sleep, but I only get a few fitful hours. It's going to be a long three days, well two days now.

The remaining two days are uneventful, besides my lack of sleep. I remember Uncle Shikaku telling me that this was unhealthy, but I really can't help it. When the Kumo nin finds us to tell us we passed, he gives me an appraising look. I ignore him.

Ryu-Sensei takes one look at the dark circles under my eyes and orders us back to the hotel rooms to rest. We have a month long break before the tournament, anyway.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows**

**The tournament happens.**


	15. Chunin Exams: Part Three

I don't know what it was about the hotel bed, but as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. Suddenly, I was back on that mountain side fighting that same Iwa nin. I saw it happen in slow motion, my Shadow blade sinking into his heart. Blood spraying out to cover my hands and arms.

The fact of the matter is that I've trained enough to always go for the kill instinctually that if I get caught off guard I'll do it even if I don't want to. I already resigned myself to the fact that the Iwa nin's greasy black hair, sharp gray eyes, and pointed face were never going to leave my nightmares. However, I didn't expect his face to start changing.

Black hair turned blond, sharp features elongated to a more adult face, and gray eyes turned dark blue, then a blood red. I pale. "No," I whisper. I'm staring into the face of my father. My dead father, that I just killed.

Then I'm sobbing. Then screaming.

My eyes fly open as a strangled gasp escapes my mouth. Hana's staring down at me worriedly, as Itachi runs into the room with Ryu-Sensei in tow. Ryu-Sensei takes one look at my face, and sits down on end of my bed.

"Yoruka," he starts, "you did what you had to do. From what Itachi told me, that Iwa nin was going for the kill."

"I know," I whisper. "It's just-" I take a breath, "It's just these are the Chunin Exams. It's not a mission. I could handle it if this were a mission. But this is supposed to be a show of cooperation. And the Iwa nin looked like he was the same age as me."

"Ryu-Sensei, I killed a child," I whisper in shame.

Ryu-Sensei pulls me into an awkward hug. "Yoruka, he was a shinobi. He knew the risk. You placed the lives of yourself and your teammates above the life of an enemy shinobi. He had no qualms about killing you. So, I'll say this again. You did what you had to do."

"Yeah," Hana offers me a weak grin, "you're alive, and that's all that matters."

Itachi pokes me in the forehead over Ryu-Sensei's shoulder, "We care about you, Yoruka. And we're glad you placed your life over his."

I bury my face into Ryu-Sensei's shoulder and shudder. If he notices water soaking through his clothes, he doesn't mention it.

I carefully shove the Iwa nin into my Box Of Issues. I look up at my team, and sniff. "Thanks," I say softly.

For the rest of the month, Ryu-Sensei drills us tirelessly. I also find out that Itachi copied some of Cee's lightning jutsus from our first disastrous C-rank. Apparently, Itachi's secondary nature is lightning, so he can use them.

"Itachi, if you don't use some of those during the tournament for the express purpose of rubbing it into Cee's face, I'm going to be disappointed in you," I tell him, struggling to keep my face straight.

Itachi shrugs, "You know me, Yoruka. Fueled off of spite." He returns, doing a much better job at maintaining a poker face.

Minato arrives at the end of the month, dragging Kakashi, Obito, and my long-suffering uncle-who's-actually-my-cousin with him. The tournament is about to begin.

"Alright," a Kumo Kunoichi announces, "this is going to be a tournament. Your village Kage will decide if you pass or not. First up, Inuzuka Hana versus Suna no Daichi." She announces.

I grin at Hana, "Break a leg," I pause for a moment, "preferably his."

Itachi snorts and wishes her good luck as she and her ninkin jump into the arena.

Suna no Daichi has a wind chakra nature. Something he makes abundantly clear as soon as the match starts. He throws what appears to be a wind blade at Hana right from the start. She dodges easily as she works in tandem with her dogs to corner the Suna nin. She gets in close enough to force him into a taijutsu match. And boy, does it not end well for Daichi. Hana's ninkin leaping at him at inopportune moments isn't really helping him, either.

The match ends when Hana punches him in the face, knocking him out. "Inuzuka Hana is the winner!" Announces the Kumo Kunoichi.

"Next match will be Kumo no Yurei versus Nara Yoruka!"

"Good luck, Yoru," Itachi says as I go for the stairs. Hana high fives me as I pass her.

The match starts, and I open with throwing three kunai at the Kumo Kunoichi I'm facing. She evades obviously, but she's in the shadow of the wall of the stadium. I grin as she tries to move.

My Shadow Imitation Jutsu having been started before the match even started, Yurei didn't even notice me activate it. I throw a lighting infused kunai to paralyze her. She collapses as I deactivate my jutsu.

"Nara Yoruka is the winner! Next up is Nekozawa Sara versus Kumo no Kei!"

That match passed uneventfully until the Iwa girl summoned a very large tiger. That was pretty much the end of that round.

"Uchiha Itachi versus Arashiki Akazumi," is the next match called.

"Kick his ass, Itachi," I grin viciously, while Hana cheers her agreement.

Itachi's match is embarrassingly short. Itachi opens with a perfectly executed A-rank lighting jutsu that he copied from Cee, and the poor Kumo nin was out before he had a chance to attack.

I glance over to where the Raikage is sitting with Cee, and I can't help but to smirk a bit. I high five Itachi when he gets back to our seats.

"The first match of the semifinals will be Inuzuka Hana versus Nara Yoruka!" The announcer says.

"Hey, Yoruka, I know all your shadow tricks, so don't hesitate to go all out with those new jutsus Kakashi taught you," She wiggles her eyebrows at me.

I snort, "I have the perfect distraction for your ninkin, Hana. So don't hesitate to use any hidden tricks you have."

She lets out an offended huff, "I can't believe you'd use your cats against my dogs like that!"

Then the match begins, and Hana's ninkin run at me dodging my shadows as I summon Arashi and Rai. The Haimaru brothers try their best to stay focused, but, well, saying Arashi is antagonistic is an understatement and Rai is almost as bad.

I stop trying to catch Hana with my shadow, she's way faster than me. Instead, I use Lighting Release: Discharge in a surface area attack. She barely dodges, and I'm sending kunai to her predicted location. I graze her with one, but she evades the rest.

I send Discharge out in a smaller, cutting crescent next. It catches Hana off guard, and she gets hit with the edge of the jutsu. Then I'm dodging an earth jutsu, and Hana has me on the defensive.

She's trying to corner me into a taijutsu match. I'm not going to let her. I surreptitiously form a lighting clone, hengeing it into a rock. I let her get close enough to start hand to hand when I replace myself with my disguised lighting clone.

She punches the apparent rock, and it explodes into a storm of lightning.

Hana shakes her hand out, "Clever, Yoruka," she winces.

I smile at her, "I try."

Hana snorts, and next thing I know I'm backflipping out of the way of a brace of senbon.

"Wow, rude," I snark as I jump back from one of her ninkin who decided I was the better target.

Rai got his attention again, and the ninkin was off. I very quickly use the replacement jutsu to get behind Hana, and before she knows what is happening, I slam my fingers into the pressure point at the back of her neck. She falls unconscious.

"Nara Yoruka is the winner!" I hear as I help the medics get Hana out of the arena.

Itachi wins his next match in the same way he won his first one. It's wildly amusing to see a 12 year old Genin throwing around A-rank jutsus. His chakra reserves are freakishly huge, and mine are probably more depleted then his are.

We get a 30 minute break before the final round starts. Hana joins us to go eat when she wakes up.

She playfully grumbles that she never should have taught me where pressure points are. The break was fun.

Itachi and I face off across the arena. As soon as the match starts, Itachi fires off another lightning jutsu. I redirect it into the wall behind me to the confusion of most the crowd.

I grin, "Hey, my hand only tingles now!" I shout to Itachi.

He snorts and starts dodging my shadow. He's not as fast as Hana, but he has his Sharingan active. Itachi spits a fireball at my head, and I duck under it. I smirk victoriously, I have him.

The floor opens up underneath Itachi in a way reminiscent of an earth jutsu. I panic, and tug my shadow to me, dragging Itachi with it away from the hole.

Itachi lands on top of me, and we tumble to the floor. Then we're falling into a hole that opened up underneath me while I was distracted.

I sharp shriek escaped my mouth as we descended into darkness.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows**

**Yoruka screws Canon up even more than she already has. **


	16. Raging Fires

We fall for what feels like hours, clinging to each other. Then we hit a slope, and we slid down that like a slide until we collapsed into a pile. I covered Itachi's mouth from where I landed on top of him, and very quietly whispered, "Pretend to be unconscious."

He moved his lips against my hand in what felt like a mouthed "ok." I go slack again.

"You imbecile!" I hear a deep voice yell, "I told you to get the Uchiha, not the Uchiha and some random girl!"

"Madara-Sama, I just thought we could use her to release the boy's Mangekyo," a simpering voice responds. I feel Itachi tense underneath me.

The first voice... Madara? Hums in thought. "You're right for once, Zetsu. That could work. The boy will need his Mangekyo for our plan to work. Now, I know you two are awake, so why don't you stop pretending."

I heave a sigh and get off of Itachi who sits up with a snarl. And... wow, that the most emotion I've actually seen expressed my Itachi. "I'm not killing Yoruka," he growls.

I freeze, "Wait, you want loyal to a fault Itachi to kill me? Honestly, that's hilarious. I don't know who you think you are, but you should probably do a more thorough personality check before you decide to make my teammate an accessory to whatever evil plot you think is a good idea," I snarl at an old man in a chair. His hair is bushy and vaguely familiar.

I need to buy time for Hana to find us. She knows our scent, and there's nowhere in the Elemental Nations we can go where she can't find us. Itachi nods his agreement.

The old man laughs, "Oh, how spirited the younger generations have become. Zetsu, possess the boy." A shadowed figure steps away from the chair. Half of its body colored black as pitch, the other side white as snow.

Shit, Kaguya. How did I forget about Kaguya? "Hang on a second old man. How do you know that thing is loyal to you?" I decide to do what I do best and buy some fucking time. "If it's wily enough to be able to fucking possess people, how do you know it's not manipulating you?" Even if Madara doesn't believe me now, I'm still planting the seeds.

Hah, plant pun about the plant person. Fuck you, Zetsu. Zetsu stills at my accusation. "The brat is obviously just trying to sow discord, Madara-sama," the same voice says, but it's somehow different.

Itachi smirks, catching on. "While normally I would agree with the assessment of Yoruka solely existing to sow chaos, your friend does seem a bit suspicious," he drawls.

I shoot Itachi an offended glare, "Wow, I came out here to kick Kumo's ass in the Chunin Exams, and honestly, I'm feeling so attacked right now."

He gives me a deadpan look, "Good." I let out an injured gasp.

Madara interrupts us with a cough, "I believe I'll be inclined to believe Zetsu-"

"Hang on," I return the favor by interrupting him, "I heard you be called Madara. If you're really Uchiha Madara, why are you attacking Konoha Genin? Especially since Itachi himself is an Uchiha," I question. Let him question his reasoning. Also, let him start monologuing.

I feel Itachi sending me an amused glance. He knows the habits of his clan more than anyone, and boy, are they all fucking dramatic

.

Madara's laugh is booming and sends me an amused look, "I know what you're doing, child. You're trying to buy time. Regardless, I shall humor you, considering no one will find you here." He either doesn't know how strong Hana and her ninkin's nose is, or he's underestimating them.

"You see, it all started when my brothers died," Zetsu looked like her was about to have a stroke. "I started dreaming about changing the world for the better, which is what led me to helping Hashirama create Konohagakure. I soon realized that a village would not create the perfect world I dreamed of. That's when I found a stone tablet detailing a way for a perfect world to come into existence, the Eternal Tsukuyomi!" Madara finished his monologue very dramatically.

Itachi choked, "The Tsukuyomi is a genjutsu. You want to place the entire Elemental Nations under a genjutsu?"

Madara nodded as I sputtered. "People can only survive a max of three days without water, Madara. Placing everyone under a genjutsu would just lead to everyone dying of dehydration!" My voice increased in volume. I think I just now realized how idiotic Madara's plan was in Canon.

Madara blinked, as if that was just now occurring to him. He then turned to Zetsu, "You assured me it would work," Madara growled.

Zetsu snarled, "I won't let a couple of brats ruin everything," he leaps at us until he suddenly freezes. I hold my hands up in the Shadow Imitation Jutsu ending handsign, smirking.

Madara watches on impassively as a surge of chakra is produced and overpowers my jutsu. Itachi and I leap to opposite sides as the ground erupts under us with plants. I pant and shoot off Lighting Release: Discharge. Zetsu dodges, but he dodges right into Itachi's Grand Fireball Jutsu.

Zetsu blocks it, and sinks into the earth. My eyes shift, looking for him. I feel a presence behind me and I block an attack from a white Zetsu with my arm guards. I summon my Shadow Blade and behead the white Zetsu, but more just take its place. "Itachi, duck!" I yell as I extend my Shadow Blade to create a wide, sweeping attack that takes out at least 20 Zetsu at once.

My breath comes quicker as my chakra levels slowly deplete. The Zetsu begin reforming, and I'm standing in the middle of a large group of them. I pale, and move clear.

Then I- I'm clutching my stomach, sinking to my knees. A deep burning, pain blooms from my abdomen as Zetsu laughs behind me. I cough, and there's blood flowing. I look down in shock to see a spear of wood springing forth from my stomach. Oh, I'm falling foreword now. I lose feeling in in my arms and legs.

The world goes hazy, and I hear Itachi scream in rage. The last thing I feel is a spike in Itachi's chakra as a blast of dirt sprinkles onto my body. I hear Hana's voice, though I can't make out what she's saying. And then the world goes black.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows**

**Yoruka catches her break, but misses her birthday.**


	17. Medical Comas Heal All

I become aware of the sound of beeping first, a slow, steady beat in time with my heart. There's a vague sense of pain in my stomach and everything seems... slow.

I reluctantly crack open my eyes with a soft groan. A familiar white light pierces through my eyelids. A weight shifts the mattress of the bed to the side, and a glance to the side shows the unhappy face of my cousin.

"Yoru," Shikamaru says glumly, "you got hurt again." He grabs my face between his small hands, "Stop it. Visiting you in the hospital takes out of my sleep schedule."

I laugh and hide a wince that comes with the motion, "Shika, I don't get hurt on purpose."

He eyes me suspiciously as Uncle Shikaku walks into my field of vision, "As soon as you're released to do physical activities, we're building your speed, kid," he grumbles as he ruffles my hair.

"So," I cleared my throat softly, "what happened?"

Uncle Shikaku shot me a deadpan look, "you got stabbed, and the medi-nin had to regrow parts of your internal organs."

I wince, "Not what I was asking, but thanks for that. I mean what happened after I got stabbed and passed out." Shikamaru stiffens at the word stabbed.

"Well, after you passed out," Hana says walking through the door, "I arrived with Shikaku and Obito, and Itachi's Sharingan did something weird." Itachi stiffens as he walks in after Hana, Ryu-Sensei following. "Also Happy Birthday, you made Chunin!"

"What happened to Madara?" I question, not reacting to the fact that I had been in a medical coma for at least two weeks.

Itachi sighed, "He came back to Konoha and is currently terrorizing the Uchiha Clan elders." His lips twitched, and wow. Itachi is enjoying that.

Something bugs me about that though. "Why did he come back, anyway?" I ask in confusion.

An amused look crossed Itachi's face, "Apparently he decided Zetsu was manipulating him and that the Eternal Tsukuyomi was total bullshit-" Itachi ignores Shikaku's mutter of language- "All on his own, of course. And the Hokage wasn't going to deny entrance to the village to one of the founders," he explains.

I laugh, once again pulling my wound and hiding the wince. The doctor walks in at that moment and shoos my family out.

She checks my bandages and reluctantly releases me from the hospital. She informs Uncle Shikaku that I'm not to do strenuous activities for at least two weeks.

A week later finds me bored out of my mind. Ryu-Sensei took Itachi and Hana on their first mission as Chunin, something about wiping out a group of bandits. Most likely, so they can get their first kills before they go on a high risk mission.

I'm currently supervising Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino throw various sharp objects at a tree. Well, I say supervising... It's more of laying under a tree ignoring them. Kakashi, Obito, and Shisui are all out on a mission, too, so I can't even go bug them.

I heave out a dramatic sigh as Ino starts yelling at Shikamaru to focus. She's six and already the bane of Nara existence. "Yoruka..." I hear my name get whined by the small blonde. I take it back. She's the bane of my existence and just an annoyance to the others.

I crack open my eyes, "Yes, Ino," I answer reluctantly.

"You should show us a fancy Chunin kunai trick," She needles. I give her a look as an apologetic look crawls across my face.

"Sorry," I say with faux disappointment, "I can't do anything strenuous. Doctor's orders." The only time I'm happy about being injured.

"Yeah, but throwing kunai isn't strenuous," she protests.

"Still pulls the injured skin and muscle," Shikamaru, the saint, jumps in.

"Oh," she pouts, "Come on Choji, show me your shuriken skills!" She perks right up as she remembers her unfortunate friend. Ugh, children.

I spend the rest of my two weeks off babysitting at Aunt Yoshino's behest. She may not have been an active Kunoichi for a very long time, but I'm still very wary of an irritated Aunt Yoshino.

Finally, the two weeks is up and Itachi and Hana drag me to the training grounds to spar. "Get back into shape," in Hana's words.

Sparring turns into Hana setting her dogs on me for some perceived insult. Probably mentioning my ongoing status as a cat person, thinking back on it.

Then Shisui manages to track us down. Training becomes hell after that. He looks at me with such a misleading look of worry in his eyes and says, "Yoruka, you can't keep getting hurt." And then the other shoe drops. "I'll help you with your speed training!"

If a Jonin known for his speed offers to help you with yours, hide. Hide very fast. Shisui's method of training is throwing kunai and shuriken at you and telling you to dodge, then sprint to a tree and back. Then repeat. This goes on for hours.

Hana, who got dragged into speed training, looks up from where she has her hands on her knees panting and says venomously, "This is your fault."

I would have winced at the pure vitriol of her tone, but alas, I am too tired to emote properly. "Actually, this is Itachi's fault," I manage to pant out and bring up the conspicuously missing member of our team, "If he never introduced us to Shisui, he wouldn't be here torturing us." I'm never too tired for smart comments, apparently.

"Now, now, girls if you're well enough to complain, you're well enough for let's say, another hour of training," Shisui says sweetly. I hate him. I hate him so much. I quickly replace myself with one of the potted plants in my room and leave Hana to her fate.

This isn't to say that Shisui's speed training doesn't work, because it does. I notice just how well it works when Uncle Shikaku is teaching me new kenjutsu and taijutsu forms. I'm not telling Shisui though. It'll invalidate all the complaining I do during our daily speed training. And like hell am I going to not be the pettiest person I know.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows**

**Yoruka deals with her new promotion and makes a new enemy.**


	18. Ashes Fall

"I'm Sarutobi Asuma, the captain for this mission. Any questions?" The scruffy looking Jonin asks.

"Uh, yeah," the scrawny, pasty boy beside me says, "Why are we babysitting a kid on this mission?" My face twitches in some combination of amusement and irritation.

Asuma sighs, "I assume you're talking about the girl beside you?" At the boy's affirming nod he continues, "Yoruka passed the Chunin Exams, so she can go on this mission." I yawn in agreement.

Asuma waits for a moment then sighs again, "Aren't you three going to introduce yourselfs?"

I wave a hand, "Nara Yoruka."

The pasty boy scowls, "Mitsuharu Toru."

The black haired boy who so far hasn't said anything looks up, "Uchiha Sora."

Asuma pinches the bridge of his nose, "let's get going then." As we take off Toru glares at me. This is going to be a long mission.

I shoot a bemused look at Uncle Shikaku, "Shadow Sewing?"

He nods, "It's basically just another way to use the shadow solidification technique, and you already have that down for your Shadow Blade." I'm going to regret this. I know I will.

After our weekly training, Itachi invites us to dinner. "What do I need to wear?" I ask.

"Casual," is Itachi's response.

Hana scoffs, "With your family that could mean from anywhere between training clothes and a full blown kimono."

Itachi considers for a moment, "I'd say go with a yukata." Hana and I groan simultaneously.

When I get home, I go to the fashion expert in the Main Nara Household: Aunt Yoshino. "Aunt Yoshino," I call, "I need a yukata for dinner with Itachi."

"A little last minute, don't you think," she says, emerging from her room.

"Don't you have anything?" I whine.

Aunt Yoshino sighs, "I'll go check." She motions for me to follow her.

She pulls out a dark green yukata with a cherry blossom pattern, holds it up to me, and nods. "This should work," she says as she places it in my hands. She gives me a light green obi to go with it.

I look down at the finery and sigh. How troublesome.

I arrive at Itachi's house unarmed, besides the three kunai I managed to slip beneath my obi. Mikoto answers the door in a beautiful dark blue yukata, and suddenly I'm very thankful Hana asked about dress code.

She smiles at me, "Come on in Yoruka, Hana is already here." I nod and walk through the door to see Hana wearing a crimson yukata with dogs lining the bottom. She's also scowling.

I go and sit by Hana, "I had to borrow this from Aunt Yoshino," I whisper. She snorts.

"I had to borrow this from my mom," Hana whispers back. Sasuke chooses this moment burst into the room with Itachi and Shisui on his heels.

"Are you here to push Shisui through another wall?" Sasuke asks with way too much glee. Shisui winces.

"No one is getting pushed through a wall again at this house," Fugaku enters next, catching the tail end of that conversation. Madara following him, looking slightly amused.

I whisper conspiratorially to Sasuke, "He said this house. He just have to find another wall to push him into." The kid lights up.

About halfway through dinner, kunai come flying out of the shadow. Reacting instinctively, I throw up a shadow barrier, a variation of the Shadow Sewing Jutsu. The barrier catches the Kunai, then I let them drop.

A black blur leaps from the shadows in the direction of Fugaku and Madara. I embed lightning chakra into a kunai I pull from my obi and throw. It only grazes the assassin, but the shock from my kunai leaves him stunned.

Fugaku uses this opportunity to pin the assassin. I still. The shinobi is dressed like ANBU, but instead of an animal mask, it's blank. So, Danzo is making his move. I notice Shisui pale out of the corner of my eye as he too catches sight of the mask.

"ANBU," Fugaku growls. "Why would the Hokage decide he wants me dead, huh?" He asks viciously.

"That's not ANBU," my voice was shaky, "I don't think ANBU uses blank masks."

"The girl is correct," Madara interjects. "Tobirama specified that no Konoha operative would wear a blank mask. Whoever this is has a military force within Konoha ANBU."

Suddenly, the Root Agent jerks and goes limp. Fugaku swears and checks the agent's pulse. "Dead," Fugaku snarls as he throws the body away from him. He looks up at me, "Send one of your summons to the Hokage. Itachi, go get me a pen and paper from my office," he instructs. Itachi bobs his head in affirmation and leaves.

I nod and summon Arashi, he's a bit more respectable than Rai. Itachi comes back and Fugaku quickly scrawls out a note and hands it to Arashi. Arashi then leaps out of a window and into the night.

Hana and Mikoto are comforting Sasuke, not that the boy needs much comforting, but it's a cover to be in arms reach should Sasuke get attacked. We wait in tense silence, the only noise being the occasional tap from Shisui's foot.

Arashi arrives in his typical fashion, nonchalant in the face irritation and danger. "The Hokage is sending two of his most trusted ANBU Agents to escort you to the tower, and putting the rest of his guards patrolling the Uchiha District," he yawns irreverently before he unsummons himself.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, two actual Konoha ANBU showed up in a burst of shunshin. We all tensed until we saw the familiar masks. Hound, who most people in the room know is Kakashi, and another man in a bird mask.

Hound takes one look at the masked shinobi laying on the floor and sighs tiredly. "This situation," he drawls, "is above more than half of the people in this room's clearance." Then, as if Hound jinxed it, the sound of high powered, destructive ninjutsu in the distance fills the air.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows**

**Danzo makes his move and Yoruka and company attempt to foil his plans**


	19. 19 Ashes Fall

My head jerks up, as the alarms start sounding. The alarm sequence is one we learned in the academy. Every shinobi, rank Chunin and above, is to respond to an internal threat. Genin are to evacuate the civilians.

We rush out of the house, Mikoto dumping Sasuke into the arms of a passing Uchiha Genin, and the ANBU and Madara shunshin off in the direction of the biggest jutsus. Fugaku and Mikoto look to go after them but pauses, "Itachi, Shisui, Hana, Yoruka, go look for any stray traitors. And whatever you do, stay away from the large battle. It's no place for kids, no matter how good a shinobi," Fugaku says gruffly. Mikoto smiles at us reassuringly and ruffles Itachi's hair. Then she and Fugaku shunshin away.

I share a look with the others, "That's a pretty big distraction," I muse.

The others pale. "What do you mean, Yoruka," Hana asks.

"Well, think about it. Why would a big group of traitors suddenly come forth now? Sure, they tried to kill either Fugaku or Madara, but we didn't know for sure who was behind that. The only thing that makes sense is that they're after something. We need to find out what." My explanation doesn't seem to reassure any of them.

Itachi shares a glance with Shisui and they both grimace. "We think we know what they might be after," Shisui starts reluctantly.

"They tried to kill the clan head and a very powerful clan elder, so it makes sense," continues Itachi.

Shisui takes over again. "The Naka Shrine contains secret Uchiha techniques and well... some Uchiha have been going missing on missions. Only to be found dead, with missing eyes. It's very possible whoever's leading these traitors is our eye thief and wants our techniques."

The Izanagi, of course! There's no way Danzo came across the way to make it just by happenstance. He had to have had a scroll detailing the usage and creation. Hana grins viciously, "Well let's go, then!" The Haimaru brothers yip their agreement.

We make it to the Naka Shrine to see a Root Agent coming out with a stone tablet. Shisui growls and disappears into the fastest shunshin I've ever seen. The Root Agent never sees him coming, and Shisui slits their throat in a swirl of leaves heralding his arrival. It somehow slipped my mind that in Canon, Shisui made Jonin at 14. Shisui is 14 now.

Shisui grabs the tablet. "I'm going to go replace this," he says distantly and walks into the shrine. Itachi follows him. I frown at their backs. They're not telling us something important. I say as much to Hana once they're out of earshot.

Hana snorts. "When are they not? Uchiha keep a lot of important secrets."

"Yeah, you're right," I sigh. "I just worry that they'll get into a situation that's over their head someday because of these secrets."

I dodge a brace of kunai as three Root Agents descend from the rooftops. Hana sniffs the air, then growls. Her ninkin mimicking her. "Those kunai are poisoned, Yoruka. Don't get hit." I nod and activate my Shadow Imitation Jutsu.

I catch all three operatives with the jutsu. "Hey Hana, do me a solid and take them out would you?" I snark at her. Hana rolls her eyes and moves to knock them unconscious. People should really stop attacking me in shadowy places.

Before Hana can get within range to hit their pressure points, the Root Agents spontaneously die. "Fuck," I whispered. "Cyanide pills. We've already seen them do this!" I let the bodies fall limp.

Hana and I anxiously wait for Shisui and Itachi to come back. I don't know about Shisui, but Itachi's fighting style is fairly destructive, so if they ran into trouble we would have known. I vaguely note that the sound of destruction is getting incrementally closer.

A black figure darts out of the shadows, quickly followed by another. I hurriedly jump out in front of the first, blocking their path as Hana does the same with the second. Blank masks, so more Root. I activate my Shadow Imitation Jutsu, their fast and they dodge. This one, it seems, has done their homework.

They move forward to stab me with a kunai, and I flip backward, kicking my foot into their mask as I go. The mask falls off and staring back at me is a girl, brown hair, brown eyes, and tanner than the average Konoha citizen. One that can only be one or two years older than Shikamaru. She makes a familiar handsign and my eyes widen. Then I'm dodging a Shadow Imitation Jutsu.

Anger seethes within me. Danzo took a fucking Nara! I snarl and throw three electric Kunai at the other girl's head. She dodges backward to where I replace myself with a rock. She startles and moves to turn around when I jam my fingers into one of her pressure points. I sigh, I'm not about to kill a child of my own clan. I open her mouth and notice the seal on her tongue. Danzo can go fuck himself. I dig the cyanide pill out of her mouth.

I glance over to where Hana is standing over another Root Agent. She's holding a Kunai, looking conflicted. "Hana," I call out. "Is that one a child, too?"

Hana jerks in surprise, then whispers, "He can't be more than a year older than Kiba."

I nod. "Same with mine, but they're brainwashed children. Surely the Hokage will want to rehabilitate them. I say just restrain them."

Hana looks relieved, like she was planning on doing that anyway but didn't have the justification besides child. I drag the Nara girl to where Hana is tying up her opponent. Black hair, ridiculously pale skin, and a drawing scroll greet me when I lay eyes on the boy. Something about him jangles a memory, but for the life of me, I can't remember what!

Itachi and Shisui exit the Shrine as the alarm and sounds of destructive jutsu stop. ANBU pops up a short time after that, and seeing the amount of Root Operatives around us in one concentrated area, tells us to report to the Hokage. They then take Hana and I's captives. As we make our way to the Hokage tower, the sun's light begins to peek over the horizon, and a wave of exhaustion hits me. Danzo's gone, I smile in relief.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows**

**Yoruka deals with the fallout. **


	20. New Leaves

We walk into the Hokage's office to a shouting match between Madara and Obito. "That man was a trusted advisor of the Hokage and he was an eye thief!" Madara growls.

"Minato-Sensei has been trying to get rid of him for years," Obito snarls. He crosses his arms against his ANBU chest plate, and I notice the mask tied to his belt. It's the same bird mask as the one that arrived with Kakashi. "Besides, there are Hunter-nin following him right now. As soon as he's away from the village, we can engage him again and kill him."

Madara pauses and contemplates. "Oh," he says, deflating.

Minato huffs out a breath. "I was made Hokage for more than just taking out practically an entire generation of Iwa nin, Madara. Now-" he turns and looks at us- "report."

Shisui starts. "Well, the ANBU operatives ordered us to patrol. Itachi and I heard about the missing eyes and figured they were after an Uchiha artifact." Shisui shifts nervously as Itachi takes over.

"When we get to the location the artifact is held, we found an infiltrator stealing the artifact. Shisui eliminated the target and we secured the perimeter." Itachi motions for Hana and I to continue.

Hana steps forward. "Yoruka and I decided to wait outside at the entrance, so Itachi and Shisui weren't surprised. Three Shinobi attacked a little while after. Yoruka managed to apprehend them with her shadow, but they used cyanide pills so they weren't captured." Hana's voice shakes and I take over.

"The next wave were two children. Hana and I managed to knock them unconscious before they could use the pills." I hesitate, then continue. "Lord Hokage, the girl I fought was using the Nara kekkei genkai." Uncle Shikaku tensed.

Hana cuts in. "And the boy I fought used a type of ink creation jutsu. It looked like somebody stole clan kids and brainwashed them."

Madara growls and turns on Minato. "You've been letting this happen under your nose." He moves forward with a hand on his sword until Obito jumps between them.

"It's not Minato-Sensei's fault! Shimura Danzo has been doing this for ages!" Obito hisses and gets into Madara's face. Both of their Sharingan activating. "Hell, it's been getting better since Minato-Sensei took the hat!" Obito bares his teeth in aggression.

Hound and the hawk masked shinobi move as Obito and Madara lunge for each other. Kakashi holding back Obito, and Hawk pins Madara in a very familiar style. I narrow my eyes at Hawk. That move almost looks like... Ryu-Sensei's?

"Enough!" Minato stands up, radiating anger. "If you two can't be mature adults about this, you're free to leave."

The ANBU release them. Madara straightens his clothes in irritation as Obito goes back to stand with Kakashi. "My apologies, Lord Hokage," Madara says stiffly.

Uncle Shikaku steps forward. "A Nara you say? That makes at least four clans we can be sure Danzo has stolen from. Eyes from the Uchiha, and children from the Nara, Yamanaka, and Aburame." His words may sound nonchalant, but his tone promises retribution.

A hunter nin slips through the window and kneels before the Hokage. "I'm sorry, Lord Hokage. Shimura Danzo escaped our tails." Madara's tightly reined killing intent exploded from him in his rage. The chunin in the room, including myself, gasped in surprise before we adjusted to the induced fear. Damn, for an old man, Madara is still very strong.

Apparently, our gasps drew the attention of the Hokage. Minato colored slightly. "Ah," he coughed, "I kind of forgot about you four. You are dismissed." We nod and get out of that office like the dogs of hell are on our heels.

When we're out of the tower, Hana collapses onto a bench. "Damn," she gasps, eying the two Uchiha, "your ancestor is fucking powerful. Even as an old man!"

I nod in agreement. "You three want to stay over at my house, today?" I ask. "We can try to needle my uncle for more information."

Itachi snorts. "It's not like we're going to get anything out of him, but sure." Shisui bobs his head in agreement as he grins at me. It doesn't reach his eyes.

Hana raises her hand, "I'm in, too!"

A few days later finds the four of us eating lunch at a café in the Uchiha District after morning training. "So," Shisui says, looking up from his food. "I've been nominated for the Jonin spar, and I'm like 75% certain I'm gonna have to fight Kakashi. Yoruka, you've trained with him before, so tell me all his secrets."

I snort and fold my hands behind my back. "It's not like I've seen any of his high level combat capabilities. He trained me in lightning ninjutsu back when I was still a Genin. But, well, if I had to guess, you're probably faster than him at base shunshin. However, he has Kamui to fall back on, though he's unlikely to use that in a Jonin spar considering how much it drains his chakra. He's lighting natured, but he has mastery with all five elements." I close my eyes in contemplation. "Luckily for you, most of Kakashi's more powerful lightning jutsus are way too powerful for a fight he doesn't want to kill anyone in."

"Like I said earlier, you have him beat in the speed department, but I'd be wary in engaging him in close combat. If I remember correctly, historically Hatakes are known for their kenjutsu. I have no idea how good Kakashi is with a sword, but as he's a Hatake and ANBU, I'd wager he's better than you with one, Shisui." I open my eyes and grin at him. "In my humble opinion, you're screwed unless you really capitalize on your speed advantage."

Shisui puts his head down on the table and groans. Hana pats him on the back. "There, there," she comforts, "Yoruka's not right about everything."

Itachi scoffs. "Name one time she wasn't about something like this." Hana sighs and looks down at Shisui apologetically. Shisui lets out a distressed wail.

Shikamaru and I look at Uncle Shikaku and Aunt Yoshino, then at the girl I fought two weeks ago. Uncle Shikaku clears his throat. "This is Karasuko, and she'll be staying with us until I can track down her closest relative."

Shikamaru just yawns. I give a small smile and wave. Karasuko's face remains impassive, but she gives me a small wave back. Ha! Take that, Hana! I can interact with the younger generations, too! I decidedly ignore the fact that Karasuko is emotionally stunted and probably was brainwashed most of her life.

A day later, I'm taking advantage of the break between Team 12 training plus Shisui and Nara training by drawing a napping Shikamaru. For some reason, I need to do stuff with my hands to relax, napping never really helped that. Karasuko approaches me with the first obvious emotion I've seen in her expression. Curiosity.

Karasuko climbs onto the couch next to me, and leans over my shoulder. "Why isn't it coming to life like Sai's?" She asks. Of course, the pale kid was Sai!

"Well," I respond, "Sai uses chakra to make his art come to life. I don't know that jutsu, so my art just stays on the paper." She seems satisfied with that explanation.

I continue shading Shikamaru's ridiculously spiky hair. Karasuko hesitates before asking another question. "Why is your drawing all gray and three dimensional, while Sai's are all sharp colors and two dimensional before he uses his jutsu on them."

"For the first part of your question, Sai probably uses ink instead of graphite. Graphite is pretty exclusive to Lighting Country, but I was there for the Chunin exams and I bought in bulk. Also, every shinobi I'm friends with will bring me back some when they go. For the second part, it's a stylistic difference." I explain. She nods and falls silent again.

I turn out to be right about Shisui's spar. He loses against Kakashi, but still makes Jonin due to his ridiculous speed. He retaliates by upping my speed training. It's hell. I thought speed training was bad before, but it's even worse now.

I finally look up at him in suspicion. "What is Uncle Shikaku giving you to get me up to Jonin speed, so he can give me a promotion to Tokubetsu Jonin?"

A line of sweat runs down Shisui's face as he laughs nervously. "I don't know what you're talking about." He looks away from my piercing stare.

Shisui finally sighs. "He promised to talk Kakashi into teaching me kenjutsu."

I squawk. "Kakashi's in on roping me into Jonin Commander! That traitor!" Shisui lets out a barely audible sigh of relief as my irritation is turned onto a new target.

"You've learned all the Nara kenjutsu I can teach you, Yoruka," Uncle Shikaku starts, "So I'll introduce you to the woman who taught your mother, Nara Sayaka."

Nara Sayaka is imposing in a way only a Nara can be. She's short and lithe, the typical Nara build, and old as dirt for a shinobi. Which thinking back, is only about 60. The thing that really makes Sayaka stand out are her eyes. Brown, like most other Naras, but calculating in a way even Uncle Shikaku's aren't.

Sayaka stands before me in all her five feet four inch glory, which wow, that annoying. She's still taller than me. "This is Kuroko's brat?" She addresses the question to Uncle Shikaku.

"Yes," he answers, "She has gained mastery or near mastery on every kenjutsu form I know. You are the only true Nara Kenjutsu Master since Kuroko died, so will you teach her?"

Sayaka gives me an appraising look. "Alright, then girl. If you want to be my student, show me you deserve it. Kenjutsu and Shadow Blade only." That was my only warning for when she flew across the field, Shadow Blade summoned.

I dodged back, summoning my own blade, and blocked a hit that would have eviscerated me. Sayaka is fast, but I've been training a fuck ton with Shisui. We're evenly matched for speed.

She moves forward with a single minded focus, instantly putting me on the defensive. I dodge or block all of her attacks until a second blade is summoned to her left hand. Surprised, my reflexes are the only thing that save me from anything worse than a large gash on my scarred, right arm.

Sayaka straightens out of her fighting stance with an unreadable look on her face. I eye her warily as she turns to my uncle. "I can work with this, Shikaku. I'll take her on as a student. Just one more question, though." She turns to face me. "What your name? I never got around to getting out of your mother."

I look at her incredulously as I allow my blade to dissipate. "It's Yoruka." Thus begins another couple of years of training from hell.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows**

**Does Yoruka have protagonist luck? Yes, yes she does.**


	21. Lighting Candles

"I'm going to teach you how to wield two shadow blades, Yoruka," Sayaka-Sensei started.

I groan quietly. "I'm going to have to learn how to do signs one-handed, aren't I."

Sayaka-Sensei looks surprised for a moment, then nods. "Yes, though I'm surprised you managed to guess the first step."

Great. One-handed signs are a Jonin skill. Uncle Shikaku is trying to surreptitiously get me to Jonin without my notice. I'm nearly there speed wise, and now I'm learning one more Jonin skill. I need to get into ANBU fast. "I'm assuming that's going to take more Chakra control than I have now?" I ask warily.

A sadistic grin spreads across Sayaka-Sensei's face. "Correct. Go through the katas I show you while keeping this leaf on your forehead. If it falls, you have to run a lap around the village." A cold sweat breaks out across my body. I am so not looking forward to this.

My fourteenth birthday came with a bitter cold front. Then again, cold in in Konoha was around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. 50 degrees is still a bitch on exposed toes, though. The limits to my loathing of shinobi sandals shall never be reached. Unfortunately, neither the cold nor my birthday were good enough excuses to skip morning practice with Team 12, especially since Ryu-Sensei was back from his mission.

I grinned and slipped a note I had written the night before into the pocket of my green hoodie (Apparently, the Chunin vest doesn't come in a size small enough for me), recalling the familiar moves of the hawk-masked ANBU. The note reads, 'You should totally recommend me for ANBU ;) -Yoruka.' I figure Ryu-Sensei will find it funny.

I walk down stairs to find Aunt Yoshino and Uncle Shikaku waiting for me with a package. Aunt Yoshino smiles kindly at me as Uncle Shikaku hands me the package. I glance at it curiously, then Uncle Shikaku motions for me to hurry up and open it.

I rip the paper off. In my hands lays a swath of folded tan fabric. Shinobi grade, by the feel of it. I unfold it, I see that it's actually a long, loose coat with the typical short sleeves of a Nara coat. I turn it around to see the symbol emblazoned in dark green across the back.

I grin at my aunt and uncle. "I guess I'm finally a full member of the clan?"

Uncle Shikaku laughs. "I've been waiting to give you a coat since the Chunin Exams, kiddo. I decided to hold off until your 14th birthday though, so you weren't seen as too much of a prodigy."

I quickly slip out of my hoodie, pulling the note out. Then, I throw the coat over my black shirt and slip the note into one of the interior pockets. The jacket goes down to just below my knees, I'm pleased to note. "I love it," I say as I slip out of the house.

I hear Aunt Yoshino's sigh of "She's growing up so fast," as I make my way down the path. A side effect of having the Lynx summons for as long as I have is heightened senses, I've learned. Incidentally, my incisors have gotten sharper too.

I make my way to the training grounds, enjoying the feeling of my new coat swish around my legs.

The village is peaceful this early in the morning, and I find myself looking forward to the customary birthday lunch.

I arrive at the training ground at the scheduled time to find Hana, Itachi, and Ryu-Sensei waiting for me. Hana bounds up to me in her usual jubilation. "Happy Birthday, Yoruka!" She smiles gleefully at me.

Itachi, who is much more reserved, approaches at a more sedate pace. "Happy birthday," he says as he gives me a small grin.

I smile at them. "Thanks, guys!" I reply.

Ryu-Sensei coughs pointedly. We sheepishly turn to look at him. It's like we never were promoted, I think fondly.

"Right, today we'll be starting with a free for all anything goes spar, then more specialized training for each of you," he informs us. For all that he isn't our Jonin Sensei anymore, he still acts like it. I'm not complaining, though. It's nice having a functional adult in your life that's not your primary caretaker, after all. And while Kakashi and Obito are adults, there is no definition of functional that they fit.

We spread out across the field, Hana and her ninkin lightly bouncing with suppressed energy, Itachi calm and focused, Ryu-Sensei unreadable as ever, and me in a state of pre-battle relaxation that the Naras are so known for. Ryu-Sensei gives the signal and we begin. Hana, Itachi, and I decide to target Ryu-Sensei together. We work like a well oiled machine, Hana running up and keeping Ryu-Sensei distracted with taijutsu, Itachi covering her with skillful application of ninjutsu, and me trying to ensnare him with my shadow. The strategy is one of my own making, and on anyone else would have worked. Unfortunately, Ryu-Sensei knows us too well.

Ryu-Sensei bats away one of Hana's ninkin and Itachi in one fell swoop. I break Itachi's and the dog's fall then move to engage Ryu-Sensei with kenjutsu. My speed has been increasing incrementally, so it takes him by surprise as I block one of his chakra blocking blows from hitting Hana with a shadow blade.

I whirl around Ryu-Sensei, looking for an opening as Itachi jumps back into the fight. There! One of the Haimaru brothers nipped Ryu-sensei's heel, and he stumbled! I move to pin him with a shadow, when he grabs Hana and swings her into me. Damn!

"You know..." drawls Ryu-Sensei, "when I said free for all I was expecting more interfighting." I huff out a laugh, then launch Hana in his direction using a variant of the Shadow Sewing Technique.

Itachi follows, releasing a fireball in front of him. Ryu-Sensei ducks under Hana, and catches Itachi in the stomach. "Itachi's out!" Ryu-Sensei calls. He must have knocked him unconscious.

I spin around Hana, and summon a second shadow blade in my off hand. It's not quite as stable as the one in my left hand, but it's enough of a surprise to get the job done. The second blade emerging from my right hand throws Ryu-Sensei off enough to where I can slip the note in his pocket without him noticing, but it doesn't keep him from knocking me back right after.

Hana breaks out an Inuzuka technique when she realizes I've fallen back. Her speed and strength increase tremendously as she and her dogs are shrouded by a red aura. Ryu-Sensei is put on the defensive for a moment but quickly begins to adjust. He's completely focused on Hana though, a perfect opportunity. I catch him with my Shadow Imitation Jutsu, and he freezes. "Hana, now!" I call.

Hana holds a kunai to Ryu-sensei's throat. "Surrender," she demands playfully.

Ryu-Sensei sighs. "Fine, I surrender." Then he moves off to the side with Itachi, who has gained consciousness while I was distracted.

Hana, still using her Inuzuka technique, is on me in a flash. Despite my training with Shisui, like this, Hana is still faster than me. She's always been stronger than me, so I need distance. I rush through the handsigns for Lightning Release: Discharge to cover my retreat.

Hana is moving too fast for my shadow to catch her, so I abandon that strategy and instead focus on drawing a large group of shadows together without her notice. I lure her into my trap, then spring it. I grin as spears of shadow anchor her in place, but then I remember something. Shit, I forgot about the Ninkin!

Right as I had that thought the three Haimaru brothers tackle me to the ground and start licking my face. I try to suppress it, but uncontrollable laughter bubbles it's way out of my mouth. "I yield," I gasp.

The shadows recede from Hana, and she rubs the spots they hit. "That's a really weird sensation," she says as her dogs get off of me.

Arashi poofs into existence onto my desk. He's holding something in his mouth. Something that looks suspiciously like a kitten, but I already have two primary summons so it can't be a kitten, right? Turns out it is a kitten. Arashi sets it down on my desk. "This is Sawagi. The queen likes you, so you get to raise another summons. Have fun!" Arashi poofs out of existence. I eye the kitten in my desk.

"I'm Yoruka," I introduce myself to the baby lynx. Sawagi just yawns at me and curls up to sleep.

The Hokage calls me in a few weeks later, I figure it's for a dangerous mission so I unsummon Sawagi. He's still to young for anything other than D and C ranked missions. I enter his office through the door, I'm not a heathen. (Looking at you, half the Jonin and Chunin in Konoha.) Hana, Itachi, a man in a green jumpsuit that could only be Maito Gai, a brown haired man with a faceplate that might be Yamato, and a lady who looks remarkably like Hana are already there. Minato nods at me but doesn't begin speaking, so he's probably waiting for more shinobi to show up.

I go to stand by Hana and Itachi as Ryu-Sensei arrives. He shoots us a worried look, so he probably knows more about whatever mission we're about to get assigned than we do.

We wait in tense silence until Shisui stumbles in. The older boy might be powerful, but he's so good at the clumsy facade he puts on that sometimes it's hard to tell what's real or not. Asuma walks in a few seconds later.

A solid five minutes pass until a brunette man with a bandana style hitai-ite and a senbon stuck between his teeth slips through the window. Minato looks resigned to his fate as a breeze blows an entire stack of paper of his desk. "Wow," the brunette, who might be Shiranui Genma, drawls, "You really need to invest in like a paper weight or something, Hokage-Sama."

Minato just shoots than man a glare. "Shut up, Genma," he says exasperatedly.

I overhear a whispered "herding cats," from Asuma and I think about telling him I can summon cats, but I think it'll probably be better not to.

A full fucking hour passes and the older shinobi get more an more annoyed until Obito slips through the window with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, a cat got stuck in a tree."

Minato just sighs.

"Uh, Hokage-sama?" Genma starts to ask.

"We're waiting on Kakashi, Genma," Minato says in a tone that shows that he is definitely regretting his life choices.

Half an hour passes, when we finally hear the window open. The entire room turns to simultaneously glare at Kakashi. "Maa..." he starts, "I forgot to set my alarm." I look out the window. It's fucking midday. The worst part is, with an absolutely dysfunctional man like Kakashi, no one can tell if he's bullshitting or not.

The Hokage breathes in through his nose, then out. "Since we're all here," a pointed look at both Obito and Kakashi, "we can get started." Everyone stands a little straighter at that. "There's been reports of suspicious activity in fire country and intelligence thinks it smells of Orochimaru. Yoruka, Itachi, Hana, and Ryu will be acting as bait/trackers to find and lure Orochimaru out of his hiding spot. Rumor has it, he wants the Sharingan. Kakashi, you'll be leading a team of Gai, Yamato, and Shisui tailing the tracker team to spring the trap on Orochimaru. How you do it is up to you. Obito, Genma, Asuma, and Tsume, you'll be back up. Using Obito's and Kakashi's Kamui, it should be pretty easy for backup to arrive in time. Any questions?"

We shake our heads no. "Excellent! Pack for a mission and meet at the front gates in an hour's time. Oh, and Obito, Kakashi? Be on time." Minato finishes.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadow**

**Team Ryu and company vs Orochimaru.**


	22. A Snake in the Leaves

It turns out that Obito and Kakashi can be relatively on time in some circumstances. And when I say relatively on time, I mean ten minutes late. "Sorry, guys," Obito says with a sheepish grin as Kakashi just curves his visible eye into an eye-smile.

Ryu-Sensei, who is the only Responsible Adult™, just sighs and hands out a seal to Hana, Itachi, and I. "Channel Chakra into these if you need help, it will send your coordinates to Kakashi's team," then louder, "Come on, we're leaving," he grumbles. We exit the village, then take to the towering trees that surround us. Kakashi and Obito's teams stay behind.

"Hana," Ryu-Sensei begins, "When we get to the area, you're going to need to start tracking Orochimaru's scent. But don't be too blatant about it. We don't want him realizing until it's too late."

Hana nods as the Haimaru brothers yip their affirmative. We take off. Green passes by as we jump from branch to branch.

Hours pass and the trees get sparser. We have to go to the ground. All three Haimaru brothers freeze and sniff the air. Hana stiffens. "It smells like death, decay, and snakes." She gags. "That's so gross!"

Ryu-Sensei tenses at the description and activates his Byakugan. Itachi sees this and activates his Sharingan. I channel chakra to my ears like the Lynxes have taught me and tilt my head, trying to pick up any unnatural sounds.

The grass rustles with the wind, except... it's completely still. I stiffen. "We're not alone," I whisper.

Ryu-Sensei looks concerned. "I don't see any chakra signatures," he mutters.

As if jinxing us, the ground erupts. We're knocked back as the debris floats up and begins forming a body the size of one of the smaller Hashirama Trees around the village. "What the hell?" Hana calls out.

Ryu-Sensei growls. "That's an animation fuinjutsu Orochimaru created before he left the village. If I remember correctly, he called it a Gollum."

The Gollum swings at us, and I jump up. I lose sight of my team as I land on the Gollum's arm. I run up to his shoulder, running through the handsigns for Lighting Release: Discharge. I release it straight into its head. The Gollum's head explodes and the thing collapses.

"Well," I say as I jump down, "that happened." I brush a bit of dirt off my jacket.

"Uh, Yoruka..." Itachi starts, looking over my shoulder.

I sigh. "It's reforming isn't it." At Itachi's nod I turn around. "Ryu-Sensei said that was fuinjutsu, so we should probably find and destroy the seal." I eye the hulking mass of dirt and stone. "The question is where is it?"

"The better question," Itachi draws, "Is where Hana and Sensei are."

I freeze, "Shit, this is a trap. Separate the bait, draw out the backup, and then draw out the backup's backup. We have to find Hana and Sensei now."

Itachi nods. "It was smart separating us like they did, neither of us are trackers so we'll have a harder time finding them."

"We'll see about that," I growl as I bite my thumb hard enough to draw blood. "Summoning Jutsu!" I call out.

Arashi poofs out of a cloud of smoke. "Can you lead us to Hana and Sensei?" I ask.

Yawning, Arashi replies, "Sure kid," and takes off toward the east. The Gollum tries to stop us, but Itachi throws a Lightning Jutsu he stole from Cee at it, destroying it once again. I send up a silent "thank you" to Cee.

Itachi and I follow Arashi for a while. "How far away did Hana and Sensei get lured, anyway?" I question irritably. Then I quickly dodge to the side as a tree goes flying past my head. "Hey, Itachi! I don't think our Gollum friend stayed dead for very long," I call.

"No shit, Yoruka!" He snaps back.

I see Hana and Ryu-Sensei on the horizon fighting, wait for it, another Gollum. "Thanks Arashi!" I call as I unsummon him.

"Sensei!" I call, "where's the seal? If we destroy that, we can't destroy the Gollums for good!"

Ryu-Sensei groans, "why didn't I think of that?" He grumbles. The veins on his face bulge as he activated his byakugan. He flew forward and punched through a Gollum's sternum. His fist came back with a seal in it that he tossed to Itachi. "Burn it," he commanded.

The first seal went up in flames as Ryu-Sensei did the same to the Gollum that followed us. Both Gollums grumbled to dust. Hana slings an arm over my shoulder. "Good thinking, Yoruka. I can definitely see why your uncle wants you to be Jonin Commander." She shoots me a wink.

"Hana..." I groan playfully and pushed her off my shoulder.

A slow clapping sound starts from behind them. I whirl around to see a pale androgynous person with black hair. "Magnificently done! Really, it's good to see that Konoha has competent Chunin," he mocks.

Ryu-Sensei scowls. "Orochimaru, how wonderful to see you." I begin to saturate the shadows around us with chakra, ready to strike when Ryu-Sensei gives the signal.

A raspy laugh comes from Orochimaru's throat, "You have me at a disadvantage as you obviously know me, but alas I have no idea who you are."

I wince. Ryu-Sensei is an A-rank Jonin and had a kill on sight order from both Iwa and Kumo during the third war. It's not like he's not in the Bingo Book. He's a big deal. Orochimaru is purposely trying to rile Sensei up. Fortunately, Ryu-Sensei doesn't take his bait.

"I think I'd like to keep my advantage, if you don't mind," Ryu-Sensei replied coolly as he locks eyes with me. I run through the handsigns for the Shadow Sewing Jutsu one-handed while Ryu-Sensei keeps him distracted.

Shadows erupt from the surroundings and pin Orochimaru in place. A surge of Chakra overpowers my jutsu and Orochimaru is free. He makes to go after Itachi but tree branches wrap around his body. He cuts away the branches and Gai and Shisui are there, ready to match him in taijutsu.

"Team Ryu, get out of here," Kakashi says as he steps out of his Kamui. Ryu-Sensei nods and then we run back toward Konoha. We get to where the Gollums ambushed us originally, before I hear the sound of pursuit.

I hear a sound that sounds like a whip cracking, and it's moving in the direction of Itachi, Fuck! I leap, tackling him to the ground as, is that a fucking tongue?, flys over our heads. The tongue hits a tree, and the impact splinters wood. "I'm glad we didn't get hit by that," Itachi says shakily.

"Well, well, well," Orochimaru says as he stalks into the clearing. "Who would have thought that the little shadow girl has a couple tricks up her sleeves."

Itachi and I get to our feet. "You know," I draw, "mocking a 14 year old really brings down your whole imitation factor."

A spike in Itachi's chakra makes me turn to look at him in surprise. His Sharingan spin into an entirely new design. Fuck, when did Itachi get his Mangekyo? Wait, the spike of chakra when I got stabbed by Zetsu is definitely reminiscent of the spike now. Black fire erupts erupts from around Orochimaru. He dodges it, but only barely. Ryu-Sensei moves to engage.

"Yoruka, Hana," Itachi whispers, "get him to look into my eyes. I can put him into an unbreakable genjutsu." We nod in unison as we hear the shrieking of what sounds like birds.

Kakashi bursts out of a tree, Mangekyo Sharingan blazing, with the Chidori sparking in his hand. The spear of lighting goes through Orochimaru's chest, but before we can celebrate the body disintegrates into snakes. "Fuck, a snake clone," Kakashi swears.

The same whip sound from before is behind me. I summon a shadow blade and step behind Itachi. I sliced through the tip of the tongue, and Orochimaru looked annoyed. Itachi whirls around behind me.

"You know what," Orochimaru snarled, "I'm tired of you interfering." Then he's in front of me, and shit he's fast. A sword is in my hand and it's all I can do to bring my own up in time to block. His blade slices clean through my own, and I freeze as it disperses. Orochimaru goes for the killing blow, but stumbles. I look to see Hana with her palms on the ground, she smirks at me.

I swish of wind flys past my ear and Shisui punches Orochimaru in the face. Yamato's mokuton binds him, and then Gai is there punching and kicking so fast that he's basically a green blur. Orochimaru explodes into a million tiny snakes. Hana shakes me out of my daze. "Yoruka, we need to go! He's obviously targeting Itachi."

I nod. "Right..." I mutter. Something is off about this whole situation.

As my team retreats, I hear the sound of Obito's voice. Kakashi must have called for backup.

My team waits anxiously in the Hokage's Office. He's letting us stay because in his words, "You were on that mission too. You deserve to know the outcome!"

Minato is happily doing paperwork, also what? who actually likes paperwork?, when a heavily pregnant red haired woman barges into his office dragging Naruto by his ear. Naruto looks... singed. Minato jumps up excitedly. "Kushina!" Well, I guess that answers the question of what happened to her, then.

"Owww, Mom!" The blond boy complains. She shoots him a glare, and Naruto automatically shuts his mouth.

"Your son," Kushina bites out, "decided it would be a great idea to experiment with explosive seals in the house." Minato pales.

"I'm assuming we no longer have a house?" His voice comes out sounding choked.

Kushina's frown deepens. "You'd be correct, and I'm too pregnant to deal with this."

Minato laid his head down on his desk with a groan.

The other teams get back just as the sun is sinking past the horizon. They don't have Orochimaru, and Kakashi is not with them.

Obito gives the report. "Orochimaru retreated when my team showed up, we pursued until he lost us. Kakashi passed out due to Chakra exhaustion, everyone else only suffered from minor wounds due to the sheer amount of people Orochimaru was fighting."

Shisui raises a hand. "Well, Orochimaru did try to steal my eyes, but that didn't happen." He gestures to his still in place eyes. "Obviously."

Minato rubs this bridge of his nose. "Why does Kakashi always do this," he groans under his breath.

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**The next time in Ashes to Shadows**

**Yoruka gets her wish, but is also slightly inconvenienced in the process.**


	23. Of Pettiness and Masks

Hana comes to training complaining about how Kakashi keeps escaping the hospital when, "Clearly, he's not healthy enough to be on his own! He nearly died from chakra exhaustion!" She fumes throughout training as Ryu-Sensei grumbles something that sounds suspiciously like "typical." Itachi, who has the patience of a saint, lets her rant to him.

A week later, I wake to a loud, incessant tapping on my window. I flop over to glare out of said window, and fuck, it's still dark out. The tapping gets louder. I groan and stumble out of bed in the general direction of my window. Sawagi, the opportunistic ass, took my spot trying to leach the body heat from my pillow.

I open my window, then a blur of black and white sweeps past me. I jerk back in surprise as ANBU Hawk, the ANBU I'm fairly sure is Ryu-Sensei, lands inside my room. Ah, this is about that note I left for Ryu-Sensei.

Hawk throws a bundle of cloth at my face. "Be at the Leafy Dragon Tea House in an hour," he informs gruffly. Then he's gone again.

I stare incomprehensibly at the bundle of black fabric for a moment, then I unwrap it. It's the standard ANBU uniform, except, well, the mask. Instead of a vague portrayal of an animal, it's just two eye holes and the ceramic being a truly obnoxious shade of pink. Ryu-Sensei, I decide, is responsible for this travesty.

I sigh, then turn longingly toward my bed, and start getting dressed. The black tank top looked like it was supposed to be skin tight, but apparently ANBU wasn't used to five foot nothing 14 year olds being inducted. I was in the same boat with the chest plate. Luckily, the pants and gloves fit decently and I substituted the oversized arm guards with my own.

Finally, with the last piece of equipment left to put on was the bright pink mask, I pull my hair up into a bun. I shoot a baleful look at the monstrosity I'm supposed to put on my face, then sigh. I reluctantly slip the mask onto my face.

Now where's the Leafy Dragon Tea House? I have the sinking suspicion that this is going to be my Genin Exam taken way to seriously.

I stick to the shadows as I run through the village, pink mask doing all it can to hinder my sneakiness. I'm not quite sure when the ANBU testing starts, but there's a distinct possibility that it already has. I wouldn't put it past ANBU to pick off initiates and make sure they don't get to the Leafy Dragon.

Of course, I muse, that it won't matter if I stay unhindered if I can't find the damn place.

I see a flash of white and I duck behind a corner and pull shadows around me. An ANBU with a frog mask drops down in front of me. I barely keep myself from tensing as their masked face moves closer to me. Apparently, hiding in solid shadows is more effective than I thought, because they move on after a couple minutes of searching.

Fuck it, I decide, and summon Rai, Sawagi, and Arashi. "Can you three do me a solid and find the Leafy Dragon Tea House?" I whisper.

Rai, face scrunched up in an attempt not to laugh at my mask, nods. "Sawagi can come with me," she offers.

I exhale a breath in relief, "Thanks." They take off in separate directions and I duck between two buildings as an initiate wearing a bright teal mask hops down from a roof. The mask colors at this point are just getting ridiculous. They're a couple inches taller than me, but just as thin. If it came down to it I could probably take them.

Teal slips into an ally opposite of mine before Hound, (cough, Kakashi, cough) jumps down after them. I hurriedly channel chakra to climb a wall to get onto the rooftops before Hound decides he wants to give me a hard time. And, knowing Kakashi, as soon as he catches my scent, he totally would.

I climb the slope of the roof and jump down a chimney, stopping myself halfway down. Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas, the half hysterical thought runs through my mind. Also, the Land of Fire rarely gets below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Who the hell has a fireplace?

A soft patter of feet above me alerts me to someone's presence. "Yoruka," Arashi calls down, "I found it, so you can come out of the chimney."

I quickly channel chakra to my hands and feet and climb the side of the chimney like a lizard. Ducking over the side of the chimney, I catch sight of a flash of teal. Teal lands beside me on the roof. "Mind letting me follow you to the Leafy Dragon?" A feminine voice whispers.

"Do whatever you want," I whisper back as I motion for Arashi to get going.

We follow Arashi toward the village center, ducking ANBU Agents all the while. Teal expresses her appreciation of me being able to manipulate the shadows around us by providing running commentary of each agent we almost run into and their abilities. Teal, I realize, is very good at information gathering.

We arrive at a nondescript building with a green roof close to the Hokage Tower. Rai and Sawagi are already there and unsummon as soon as they see me. Arashi gives a small nod before doing the same.

Teal and I slip through a small window at the back of the building that leads to a storage room. We slip into the main part of the tea house. "Congratulations," a deep voice echos from around the room. "Teal and Hot Pink pass the first stage of ANBU Initiation!"

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**The end ? Thanks for reading!**

**I hope you enjoyed this story a lot ? ****ﾟﾘﾊ****?**


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